CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As part of Operation Supply Our Students, KRIS Communications, United Way of the Coastal Bend, and H-E-B rely on many local partners for assistance in the collection, storage, organization, and distribution of school supplies.
The event will supply more than 40 local school districts with school supplies, which translates to a lot of supplies. For the last three years, Holt Cat in Corpus Christi has assisted Operation SOS in the storage and distribution of the school supplies.
“We offered to help by unloading the school supplies here at our facility, where forklifts available and a loading dock, and we found some space to store the items. The donations are such a great volume that we store them here,” said Alvin Thomas, the parts manager for Holt Cat Corpus Christi.
Holt Cat offered its facilities after assisting United Way of the Coastal Bend a few years ago and noticing the location where they had school supplies looked cramped.
“We help fill that gap by providing a place to store it, and the manpower to help load and unload all the school supplies, and get them delivered to the students,” Thomas said.
This year, Thomas said there are about 32 pallets of school supplies and six pallets of hand sanitizer in storage.
“We’ve got pens, and pencils, folders, and crayons. We stage it here in this warehouse, and the Chemours group will come by and do the sort for all the different school districts,” he said.
Next Thursday, the Chemours volunteers will sort the supplies to be distributed to the different school districts. Thomas said distribution usually takes just one day.
Thomas said he and the rest of the Holt Cat crew are glad to do their part to help local students.
“We want to be leaders in our community, we want to help where we can, and this is one way we felt like we could have a big impact and help the United Way,” he said.
Operation SOS will continue until August 17. Donations can be made online, by texting “SOS” to 91999, or in-person at several Coastal Bend H-E-B locations.
