4th annual StreeHeat drive to provide gift bags to parents

The fourth annual StreeHeat Ministries back-to-school backpack drive — which is scheduled this year for Saturday, July 11 — will begin the day before, founder George Vaugh said.

“We will be at the Wyndham Resort and we will be assembling all of the backpacks with the school supplies based on the grade,” said Vaughn, who’s also the Las Vegas-based nonprofit’s president. “First grade through second grade, third grade, fourth grade, all the way up to junior high.”

Each backpack will receive normal school supplies, like paper, pen, erasers among other supplies.

Vaughn said he’s been in contact with the Sedona-Oak Creek School District as well as the Sedona Charter School to put together a list of supplies that may be needed.

“This is an all year event, due to the fact that whatever inventory we have left after the back-to-school drive, we give all of the schools a list of the remaining inventory that we have available for distribution throughout the year,” Vaugh said.

The nonprofit tries to buy between 200 and 300 backpacks each year for the program.

“And with the partnership with Wyndham, all they have to do is go to the Wyndham resort, contact the manager or the assistant manager and they will deliver any school supplies through the remainder of [the] year to any school and to any student that may be in need of an additional backpack,” said Vaughn, who is also a timeshare owner of Wyndham.

“Because we all know that supplies run low and backpacks break and anything happens, and that’s the purpose of this program.”

During the event, families are invited to the resort, located at 1500 Kestrel Circle in West Sedona, to pick up the supplies starting at 10 a.m.

“This year, we’re doing something special for all of the families, … we have special gift bags that we’re going to be distributing to all the parents just as a ‘thank you,’” Vaugh said.

He said the gift bag will include things like soap, lotion and make up.

The first year StreeHeat conducted the drive, it gave out 120 backpacks. Last year, more than 180 were handed out.

“Street Heat Ministries has received a small grant from the city for the backpack program,” Mayor Holli Ploog recently wrote.
“We haven’t participated in specific events such as the Wyndham drive.”

The city will vote on whether to grant the nonprofit money again this year on Tuesday, July 14, three days after the drive ends. In the past, the cityhas granted the nonprofit several thousand dollars though the city’s Small Grants Program.

“Street Heat Ministries has to fund everything up front, hoping and praying that we get awarded a certain amount to cover all of our expenses,” Vaughn said.

While this is his fourth year doing this drive in Sedona, the nonprofit runs an even larger drive in Las Vegas each year, where it is based and runs a daily foodbank. This year’s Las Vegas drive is about twoweeks after Sedona’s. The nonprofit is legally registered as “StreeHeat,” though using an image of a cross for the “T” in “StreetHeat” in its marketing.

Students in the SedonaOak Creek School District return to class on Thursday, Aug. 6. The first day for charter school students, which is a half day, is Wednesday, Aug. 5.

Visit streetheatministries.org for more information.