A Hawthorn Elementary School teacher challenged Lake Area residents to lend a helping hand to struggling families and the residents responded. Eric Cook put an idea out on his Facebook for community residents to sponsor a child and help them buy school supplies. He says every year there are students who come to school who couldn’t afford their supplies and he wanted to do something to help. He paid for one family and the rest was left up to the community.
He says supplies for each kid averages around $100, which means the community has donated nearly $10,000 to help area students purchase their school supplies for the upcoming year.