DONATIONS SOUGHT — Brooke County school officials are accepting donations of school supplies and personal hygiene items for distribution to Brooke County students in various grades during the upcoming Back-to-School Bash. Helping them to fill a school bus outside the school board’s office at 1201 Pleasant Ave., Wellsburg, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily through Friday are members of various athletic teams. On hand Monday afternoon were, from left, Brooke Bruin football players and managers William Harvey, Crosby Morris, Rylan Figgs, Linkin Taylor, Rocco Sacripanti, Elijah Lanigan, Grant Yost, Kaitlin DeMaria and Natalie Miller with Jason Williamson, athletic director. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — Brooke County school officials are hoping this week to stuff a school bus, but not with students.

Headed by Jason Williamson, athletic director, they want to fill a bus with various school supplies and personal hygiene products to be distributed to students in various grades at the upcoming Back-to-School Bash.

Williamson said donations will be loaded into a school bus parked outside the school board’s office at 1201 Pleasant Ave. between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily through Friday.

Materials sought include backpacks, pencils, pens, highlighters, crayons, colored pencils, glue sticks, notebooks, composition books, loose leaf paper and washable markers as well as everyday personal care products for males and females.

The collection has become an annual tradition in recent years, with members of the county’s high school and middle school athletic teams helping to load the many donations onto the bus.

The Brooke High School cheerleaders and football team were on hand on Monday and will be followed on other days by the high school’s boys and girls soccer and basketball teams and volleyball, softball and baseball teams and Brooke Middle School’s boys and girls basketball teams and golf and football teams.

Also a newer Brooke County Schools tradition, the Back-to-School Bash, will be held on Aug. 7 at the high school.

Students with sensory issues are invited to attend from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., with all others welcomed between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

In addition to the distribution of free school supplies, the event will include food, activities for children, a display of local emergency vehicles and booths staffed by school officials and others with information for students and their families.

From the event, attendees may make their way to nearby Brooke Memorial Stadium for a Meet the Teams program, where athletes in the high school’s and middle’s school’s fall sports programs will be introduced between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

A fireworks display will follow.