Mountain View's giant event eases back-to-school costs

 By Beth Ann Johnson, Mountain View Lutheran Church and Community Center

EDGEWOOD — For many families in our community, this is a tough time of year — they need to purchase school supplies and clothing for their kids. It can be expensive. A recent survey pegged the cost of school supplies for an elementary student at $65. For secondary students who require multiple binders and expensive calculators, the price is more than twice as much.

Three years ago, Mountain View Community Center saw an opportunity to make a difference for local families, creating their annual Back to School BBQ and Health Fair. This year's took place Aug. 25.

As the name implies, it’s more than just school supplies. “We were really blessed,” said Center Director Charmaine Jovanovich Miller. “We had volunteers running a vision-screening room; we had the dental van here to give check ups and fill cavities; we had free haircuts for students.” And they gave out around 800 backpacks and more than 2,800 clothing items. All was made possible by donations big and small, and time from 147 volunteers.

There was fun stuff, too: a free BBQ, drawings for prizes, music and entertainment, a rock-climbing wall, popcorn and snocones.

The community center was the vision of Mountain View Lutheran Church, which shares its campus with the Center. Many of the volunteers are church members, but there were many community volunteers involved also.

Freda Smith, who works with Medical Teams International (which provided the dental van) was also impressed.  “One little girl came down to get her dental check-up after getting her backpack — and she wouldn’t take her backpack off while she was getting her check up — she was so happy!”

The Rev. John Vaswig of Mountain View Lutheran called the event an opportunity for the spirit to move in daily life. 

“When you walk across this campus (during the event) and see everything happening, see the kids getting haircuts and dental exams, and the difference a backpack makes in the life of a seven year old, this is following Christ.”

Miller agreed.  “Knit together, we made a big difference to hundreds of little people — no wonder the Lord blessed us with such a beautiful day — thank you to everyone who made this day possible.”