Community Corner
Community Celebrates New School Year at St. John's Baptist
This was the first year the church held the event.
St. John’s Baptist Church on Morse Avenue in Scotch Plains held its first annual “Back-to-School Fair” on Saturday afternoon.
The 100-year-old church has a long history of community outreach programs for older residents, but Slyvia Hicks, Sonia Johnson and other parishioners wanted to reach out to the children in the community this year.
With these hard economic times, many families are finding it difficult to send their kids back to school. Not only did the fair have rides, games, music and food, but St. John’s also handed out bags of school supplies and gave a free meal to the children in attendance.
Johnson said the back-to-school event was really a last minute idea. The church only had about five weeks to prepare. She said she is “proud of the way their church came together to give back to the community.”
A representative from the Scotch Plains Board of Education was scheduled to discuss local programs to help those families in need and their plans for the coming school year. There were also a few police officers at the event handing out information about local schools.
Funding for the fair was mainly provided by church parishioners, but the event was open to the entire community.
“We handed out fliers at all local religious establishments, from Catholic churches to synagogues,” Hicks said.
Three hundred people were expected to attend Saturday. The parishioners said they hope that they’re able to hold the event again next year.