City Concludes 2022 School Supply Drive

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The day after school got underway, Mesquite City staffers were gathering up a huge haul of school supply donations to deliver to the various Virgin Valley classrooms.

Department of Athletics and Leisure Services Director Nicholas Montoya gave a brief presentation at City Council meeting on Tuesday, August 9 to conclude the very successful 2022 School Supply Drive.
“It ended up being quite a bit more than last year,” Montoya told the Council. “We spent about two and a half hours piling it all up and putting it in boxes.”

Montoya said that he didn’t bring all of the donations in to show to the Council because of how much was donated. “We will be delivering it to each principal at the schools in the morning,” he said. “I just want to thank the community for all the support. It was awesome!”

The supply drive started over a month ago in July. Donations of school supplies were collected at Mesquite City Hall, the Mesquite Rec Center and at the Mesquite library branch.

Despite the fact that most of the local schools had back-to-school night activities that evening, two of the four local principals found time to be in attendance at the City Council meeting. Montoya asked that Mr. Matt Bennett, of Virgin Valley Elementary School and Mr. Maurice Perkins of Hughes Middle School come to the front of the room for a special presentation.

“I did have some people in the community come up and give me money for this drive,” Montoya said. “One gentleman gave me gift cards and wanted each school to have them so that the principals could award them to a teacher that performs well or does a little bit more. So that will be a tough one for you to decide, I’m sure.”

He presented some of the cards to the two principals in attendance and said that he would deliver the remaining cards to the other two schools with the supply deliveries.

Montoya also noted that a local resident had donated $300 to the City’s Sunshine Academy preschool program as well.

Montoya expressed gratitude to Councilwoman Sandra Ramaker for her involvement in supporting and leading off in this year’s drive.

“I really want to thank Sandra for getting us going on this,” Montoya said. “We appreciate the support.”
Ramaker expressed gratitude for the help from the community in the drive. “I just want to thank everybody,” she said. “I mean our community has given so much and I am so proud of everybody and what we were able to collect for our teachers and students.”