Pflugerville ISD's Hope Pfest offers back-to-school assistance to over 1000
PFLUGERVILLE, Texas - With the start of the school year just a few weeks away, Pflugerville ISD opened its doors a bit early to help families check off their back-to-school lists.
On Saturday morning, the Connally High School gym was packed.
"It’s a little chaotic, but it’s really cool," said Nicole Stephenson, a PFISD parent, who was there for Hope Pfest. "The free haircuts, the clothes, we get to see all the teachers and the schools, and that’s really cool too."
Her daughter Cat, who will be in fourth grade this year, picked out a new pair of shoes. "They have cat prints on them, and I like cat prints," she said.
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"We are trying to do everything we can to get all of our kids ready for back to school, so we’re offering free school supplies, immunizations, haircuts." said Tamra Spence, chief communications officer for PfISD.
More than 30 community vendors, like Brenda with Parkway Bible Church, brought school supplies. She’s passing out spiral notebooks.
"We just love our community, and we especially love the school district, and we just want to support them in any way possible," said Brenda.
Spence said the district has never hosted a back-to-school event quite this large, but it’s clear that it was needed.
"We have seen an increase in our unhoused population, and it’s always hard to get a hold of those people because they don’t necessarily have easy ways to communicate with," said Spence.
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Parents agree and say this event has brought a sigh of relief.
"It'll help us," said Lashawn Johnson, a PFISD parent. "We don’t have to spend any money, well, less money. I am so grateful and thankful for everybody who pitched in and helped."
"Whatever we don’t get here will be much easier to get on tax-free weekend," said Stephenson. "It will definitely help with our budget."
The district expected 800 to 1000 people, but just two hours in, the crowds exceeded that.
"It tells us that this was definitely needed," said Spence. "It was definitely something that was needed in our community, so I'm glad we were able to find something to fill that gap, and we’ll definitely be building on it for next year. Make it bigger and better."
The school district said that if it has any extra goodies from Hope Pfest, it will go to its social workers. Anyone who missed the event will still have access to the things they need through them.