Community Comes Together in Support of Early Childhood Programs

At the fourth annual Garber Chevrolet Midland “Stuff the Bus” event to collect critical supplies for early childhood programs throughout Midland County, Dow Chemical Employees’ Credit Union was able to donate more than 2,000 items to the cause thanks to the generosity of the DCECU community. 

Between contributions from DCECU itself, the credit union’s members and employees, and the community at large, nearly 2,500 items were collected, including backpacks, nonperishable food items, hygiene products, paper products and a variety of school supplies. 

DCECU representatives delivered the collected items to Garber during the Aug. 16 event, which was organized to benefit Midland County’s Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Head Start and Early Childhood Special Education – programs offered by the Midland County Educational Service Agency in collaboration with many early childhood partners.

“For the second consecutive year, we invited DCECU members and the broader community to join the credit union and our employees in contributing items to Stuff the Bus, and the response was fantastic this year – nearly double the 1,300 items we collected the previous year,” said DCECU Consumer Centralized Lending Manager Juli Lacina, who helps coordinate the credit union’s participation in the drive. “Thanks to this important event that Garber so generously presents each year, many of the county’s youngest learners will begin the school year with access to much-needed supplies and food.” 

In all, the Garber event collected over 4,200 items comprised of more than: 100 backpacks; more than 500 food items; 100 hygiene products; and 3,500 school supplies, such as markers, crayons, colored pencils and rulers. The donations will support 30 classrooms in 10 locations. All donated nonperishable food items were taken to the Longview Early Childhood Center’s food pantry for distribution to Midland County families. 

“We are very grateful for the donations of school supplies and food for our students,” said GSRP Longview Early Childhood Center Director and Teacher Lori Kaylor. “Thank you for your generous support to our preschool programs!”