Helena High School Principal Greg Upham knows all too well how students feel when they start a new school year without the supplies they need.

So he was thrilled when he heard about Stuff the Bus, a faith-based social justice campaign with the mission of getting new school supplies into the hands of children whose families can’t afford them.

“If they didn’t have this, some students would come in with possibly nothing,” Upham said. “It levels out the playing field — academically and socially.”

For the second year, Theresa Ortega, executive director of Good Samaritan Ministries, is spearheading the effort.

Every weekend from now until the end of the August, a bus donated by First Student (formerly Laidlaw) will be parked at one of 11 participating area churches.

By the end the campaign, with the support of the community, the bus will be filled with such school supplies as pencils and pens, notebooks and scissors, band instruments and backpacks for the area’s hundreds of economically disadvantaged youth.

The bus will be parked in the First Lutheran Church lot at the end of July, and the church also will be the sorting house at the campaign’s end.

Hoyle Hoover, First Lutheran’s director of Christian education, said when he joined the church seven months ago he was looking for ways the congregation’s youth could get involved in the community.

Stuff the Bus fit the bill.

“I just really felt it was a great opportunity as a church, and a way to get our youth as well as our entire congregation involved in something that impacted the community,” Hoover said. “As a whole, we are excited to be involved in this project.”

Marcia Wall, founder of the Angel Fund, a nonprofit corporation that has been helping get supplies to children who need them for the past 18 years, is assisting in the summer effort.

Any type of school supply will be accepted, as well as cash donations, and contributors can specify which school they would like their money to benefit.

Ortega said she knows of many teachers who spend their own money to purchase supplies for students in their classrooms.

“We want to make it so teachers don’t have to take it out of their own pockets,” she said.

The average cost for a child’s school supplies in elementary school is nearly $70 per child for one year, and that amount increases with age, Ortega said.

Marianna Crider, a special education teacher at Rossiter Elementary, said many families simply won’t ask for the help.

“They want to be able to take care of their own children and buy them what they need,” she said. “But when students come to school and they see what everyone else has and they don’t, they feel bad.”

Upham says he’s been around students long enough to know that when they come to school they want to be just like the other kids.

“The need to be the same is strong — nobody wants to feel out of place,” he said.

It’s the same for adults, he said.

“You wouldn’t want to show up for a dinner party with everyone in ties and you in jeans and a T-shirt,” said Upham.

How to help

Stuff the Bus is collecting school supplies for Helena and East Helena students. A bus, donated by First Students, will be parked at various churches throughout the summer. Those who can’t make it to the churches can contribute to Stuff the Bus at the Good Samaritan office at 3067 N. Montana Ave.

The bus will be parked at the following locations:

June 14-15: St. Mary’s Catholic Community

June 29: Plymouth Congregational Church and First Presbyterian Church

July 6: First Presbyterian Church

July 13: St. John’s Catholic Church n Clancy

July 20: Salvation Army

July 27: First Lutheran Church

Aug. 3: First Baptist Church

Aug. 9-10: Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Community

Aug. 16-17: Helena Cathedral Parish

Aug. 21-22: East Helena United Methodist Church

Aug. 23-24: Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church

Reporter Alana Listoe: 447-4081 or alana.listoe@helenair.com