984 students signed up for the Back to School event Saturday

Shorecrest Football players and Coach Christensen help The WORKS move 1,000 pairs of socks, underwear, and 500 hygiene packs to Meridian Park Elementary in preparation for the Back to School event. This is the third year that the team has supported The WORKS.

Story and photos thanks to the Back to School Consortium

This Saturday, the 19th Annual Back to School event will take place at Meridian Park Elementary from 12:30-4:00pm.

This event is a labor of love brought to the community by the 

• Shoreline PTA Council, 
• Shoreline School District, 
• City of Shoreline, 
• Center for Human Services, 
• Dale Turner YMCA, 
• Rotary Club of Lake Forest Park, 
• Shoreline Community Care, 
• Ronald United Methodist Church, 
• Hopelink, 
• The Salvation Army, 

and our newest members, 

• Rotary Club of Shoreline and 
• Shoreline Public Schools Foundation.

Socially distanced and masked volunteers helped organize pre-packaged school supplies in advance of the Back to School event. This year, the event will forgo backpacks due to remote learning.

This year, there are 487 families and 984 students pre-registered. Last year, we pre-registered 395 families and 898 students.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, we are doing things a little differently this year... This will be a drive thru event!

Jill Steinberg, Co-Chair of The WORKS, receives a bounty of hygiene supplies from the Rotary Club of Lake Forest Park

Families will still receive five pairs of new underwear and socks, hygiene products, school supplies, and they will be able to sign up for free and reduced lunch with Nutrition Services.

School supplies will be in pre-packaged boxes since we won’t be offering backpacks this year and we could not have had the usual 75 volunteers assembling school supplies into backpacks.

Socially distanced and masked volunteers at The WORKS for the Back to School Donation Day event on July 25th

Some exciting new offerings include Black hair care products coordinated by Melyssa Stone, Dean of students at Shorewood High School and Shoreline's Equity and Family Engagement department. 

We will also be distributing a jump rope to each family through non-profit Upower, and eight masks per family provided by the City of Shoreline.

The Edmonds chapter of Days for Girls donated 600 hand made masks to The WORKS. All of the masks could not fit in the photo! 

Our superstar, socially distanced volunteer team will do their best to make this unique format as special as possible for attendees. If you would like to help out, we still have a few spots open. 

Check out volunteer opportunities HERE

For more information on the BTS event, visit our webpage