Stuff the Bus 2020

About Stuff the Bus

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Frederick County community rallied behind the Stuff the Bus school supply collection initiative to meet the growing needs of Frederick County Public School students.  Nearly 90,000  individual supplies with estimated value of over $50,000 has been contributed by generous community donors. In 2019, the previous most successful year, Stuff the Bus collected about 80,000 individual supplies.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges to Stuff the Bus.  For the first time in its 12-year history in Frederick County, Stuff the Bus went mostly digital.  Virtual Stuff the Bus was launched in mid-July and yielded about 46,641 individual supplies including 6,000 facemasks.  A commitment of nearly 35,000 supplies were made possible with grants by United Way of Frederick County through the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Campaign, by the City of Frederick and other cash contributions.  An additional 8,125 supplies were collected in traditional drop off efforts.*

Community partners including Frederick County Public Schools, Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs serving the Frederick Feeder schools, Frederick Stake – Church of Latter-day Saints, Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ, Middletown Valley People Helping People, Glade Family Community Services serving Walkersville, and BEACON (Brunswick Ecumenical Assistance Committee on Needs) helped make Stuff the Bus a huge success.

Major support for Stuff the Bus was provided by the City of Frederick, M&T Bank, Leidos, Evangelical Lutheran Church and LSWG. Over 18 companies and groups organized Virtual Stuff the Bus teams; an additional 18 companies hosted traditional dropoff locations.  Habitat for Humanity contributed 5,000 facemasks to the project; an additional 1,000 masks were provided by Frederick Health Hospital Auxiliary.

Accounting for 2020

Stuff the Bus 2020 was successful through the deployment of state-of-the-art virtual campaign technology and traditional collection drives, as well as by cash gifts and grants.  We are deeply appreciative of those who committed of themselves to make this school supply drive such a success.

*Includes grants made to ERUCC from the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Campaign a grant from the City of Frederick and cash contributions to Stuff the Bus after the close of the Virtual Stuff the Bus.
Note:  All giving by United Way of Frederick County to support school supply drives is considered part of the Stuff the Bus campaign.
 

How Can I Continue to Help?