With the first day of school Aug. 11 for kids in Chilton County, school supply shopping can be a stressful and expensive time.

For the second year in a row, West End Baptist Church hopes to relieve some of the stress and financial burden by providing backpacks for students in third, fourth and fifth grade at Clanton Intermediate School.

The “Pack to School” project provides backpacks filled with the necessary school supply items for kids, and serves as an outreach ministry for the church.

“Our biggest desire is to help the community,” said Youth Minister Kenny Martin. “We know there are a lot of families who are struggling to buy the needed school supplies for their kids starting back to school, and we want to help with that need.”

The backpacks will be distributed at West End Baptist Church on Aug. 8 from 9 a.m. until the backpacks run out. The backpacks will be distributed near the Worship Center at the church.

The project started in 2014 with 132 backpacks distributed to the community.

“We pulled into the parking lot last year, and there were people wrapped around the building,” event organizer Jessica Martin said. “It was a surprise, but we all had a lot of fun.”

Anyone with a child who attends Clanton Intermediate School is invited to pick up a backpack during the distribution time, and children are allowed to come choose his or her backpack.

This year, organizers encourage those interested in receiving a backpack to arrive early.

“We only have a certain amount of backpacks, and once we run out, we won’t have any more,” Kenny Martin said. “It is really neat to see the kids pick out their own backpack and see the joy on their faces at having something they can own.”

The group is hoping to have more than 100 backpacks this year with supplies such as paper, notebooks, pencils, crayons, paper products, and more.

Since many of the supplies are too much for one backpack, families will also receive a mesh tote with supplies in addition to the backpacks.

“What we found was that all of the school supplies wouldn’t fit in the backpack so we also put them in a tote which parents can pick up,” Jessica Martin said.

Kenny Martin said the youth at the church would help fill the backpacks on Wednesday in preparation for Saturday’s event.

“We got the idea when we saw a church in Atlanta who had a similar ministry,” Kenny Martin said. “We thought it would be neat to start here. Our goal is for other churches in the area to also offer similar programs for other schools and grades within Chilton County.”

The ministry has received donations from people within the community to be able to purchase the school supplies.

“We are excited about giving them away, and helping those in the community,” Kenny Martin said. “We want the kids to know we are here for them, and we will help out in any way that we can.”

West End Baptist Church is located at 2005 Second Ave. N. in Clanton. For more information about the project, contact (205) 755-0625.