As the dawn of the 2025-26 school year approaches, the Crestwood School District is attempting to get a head start by once again holding a month-long supply drive for the community pep rally on Aug. 17 at Jack Lambert Stadium in Mantua.
“There are people who are on it and there are people who go school supply shopping for their families and they pick up extra stuff,” Crestwood Athletic Administrative Assistant Holly Tayerle told The Weekly Villager on July 24. “This year, a couple of churches are involved, and it gives the community time to go up and pick it out.
The supply drive started on July 17 and will end on Aug. 14 as Mantua will donate school supplies at various sites around the Village. Those school supplies will be collected by Tayerle and school secretary Kim Krueger and will offer those supplies to families at the Crestwood’s community pep rally day.
Donated items include the essentials, notebooks, pencils, markers, binders, and textbooks. According to Tayerle, a lot of the donated materials that she and Krueger collect are used school materials by Crestwood alums or family members of those alums and usually arrive in good condition. She acknowledged that on some occasions, the donated materials are not deemed suitable enough for daily use and are usually kept by the school district, who offers those supplies to students in a case of emergency whenever they are missing an essential item.
Tayerle noted that she and Krueger had noticed the number of students who had shown up to school on the first day lacking school supplies and decided to host a supply drive three years ago, inviting members of the community to donate all sorts of school essentials for students who are in need.
“A lot of times we will get a binder where the kid maybe used it once or twice, it is basically in brand new condition,” she added. “Notebooks where there are one or two pages in the front ripped out, stuff like that. We donated markers that aren’t new in the package, but we always try them out to make sure they are in like new condition. When people are bringing stuff from their homes and donating it, it is very gently used or even brand new.”
Those materials are made available at Crestwood’s community pep rally day and families attending can collect several items for their children. Tayerle said that any leftover material is kept by the school district but if last year’s supply drive is any indication, there will be very little inventory left for the school district.
In addition to families donating school supplies, Tayerle also said that some people have ordered new school supplies and arranged for them to be dropped off at a site in the Village for the school district to pick up. For the second consecutive year, the Crestwood supply drive is also collecting monetary donations, which are used by the school district to purchase school supplies which they see they are lacking from the initial collection of donated materials.
“What we will try to do is go out and get some bookbags and stuff like the bigger ticket items that are a little more expensive to purchase,” Tayler said. “We have not had a ton of money donated. We are kind of still new, with it only being our third year. What we like to do is take the funds that we get and we look at the stuff that we collected and see what we need more of.”
Tayerle said that Crestwood’s community pep rally day also includes the presence of several school vendors, including sports teams, who offer activities for the children to participate in as well as attendance of other organizations such as the Parent-Teacher’s Organization, Akron Children’s Hospital and other local daycares.
The community pep rally also raises money from 50-50 raffles and the dunk tank, and all money raised is deposited into the community pep rally day fund for next year.
According to Tayerle, while the supply drive is still in its early stages, it has already brought out the pride of the Village as it shows the lengths residents will go to show support for one another.
“I would say that I think the supply drive is definitely essential for the community and our families here and I think it is going to become something that is more and more essential and, in the future, it is just going to keep growing,” she said. “I hope we can continue to grow that community support too and continue to have this supply drive for the families that need it.”
