There are over 500 elementary students enrolled in the AOS 98 school union in the Boothbay region and Georgetown. Every child is special. The goal of the Boothbay Region Community Resources Council program, Set for Success, is to equip every elementary student with essential school supplies requested by teachers and offer all manner of support and information to families.

For a fourth year, coordinator Sue Burge has spent the past four months working, plotting, planning, networking, ordering counting, receiving and storing donations of teacher requested school supplies to be gifted to students during the big August back to school event. With the extraordinary behind the scenes efforts from Nancy VanDyke, Lori Grinnel, Sue Norton, Becky Alley. Judy Dorr and Jeannie Duncan, this year’s event will be amazing!

Sunday, Aug. 16 is the big day. Doors to the Boothbay Harbor Y Field House will open at 1 p.m. where hundreds of public school students from Southport Central, Edgecomb Eddy and Boothbay Region Elementary School are welcomed. Students must present with a parent or guardian.

At the Welcome Center, manned by school superintendent, principals and other staff, children will give their name, school and grade. A shopping list for their new class will be handed to them and off they go on a Free School Supply Shopping Spree!

The lucky first 295 students will be handed string bags full of gifts and some will include amazing gift certificates from local businesses. If students have perfectly fine backpacks to use again this year — we encourage them to come to the event with them to fill with new school supplies.

As students and families enter the Field House, volunteers from the U.S. Coast Guard Station and others will guide students in grades 2-8 to the backpack shopping center: four lines to the table. From there students will see volunteers with signs indicating two separate school supply shopping centers according to grade level. Of special note: Students entering pre-K, kindergarten, or first grade will be sent to a separate all-inclusive school supply center with backpacks and everything they need.

A beautiful hair salon with many local volunteer hair stylists will be open through the afternoon offering free back to school haircuts. Visit the nail salon and stroll next door to the Boothbay Harbor Rotary for a gift bag of personal hygiene products.

FAME, Financial Authority of Maine, is offering Next Gen Educational Grants. Please stop and say hello to the members of the Boothbay Region Community Resources Council who will have valuable information on their seven major programs of resource and support for families experiencing difficult times. 

There will a huge line up of event booths with handouts and information. New this year is a free Children’s Clothing Boutique with new winter clothing, shoes, etc. The Boothbay Sea and Science Center, Boothbay Walks, Girl Scouts and Lincoln County Dental are joining us for the first time.

The Lions Club is bringing their portable eye test machine for free eye health checks. Lincoln County Health will offer information and handouts on many of their services to include doctors, nurses, school-based health center, Wellness Rehab Center, social worker clinician, programs in the new Coulombe Center for Wellness and more. You’ll meet staff from Lincoln County Dental providing oral health education as well as passing out forms for the Children’s Outreach Program providing preventive services for MaineCare and uninsured children at the Boothbay Region School Health Center.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and Boothbay Region Garden Club will have beautiful offerings of information and handouts.

Boothbay Baptist Church and The Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor will be happy to give you information about their children and teen programs. The Y will have handouts of their upcoming programs along with some on-site physical activities and a musical presentation by Y Arts. 

Getting hungry? Hannaford will present another amazing Healthy Food Court with lots of giveaways.

Stop and visit our friends from the Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library; Boothbay Region Food Pantry, Food For Thought, Healthy Kids Program; BRES Reading Specialist, Lisa Sharp with lots of books to gift.

Kids can meet eye doctor, Michelle Bouchard, and dentist, Toby Clarkson, and staff. Police, Fire and EMS will join in, too. Resident DJ, Calvin Crocker will be keeping the sound system in check for special surprise guests to speak, a Y Arts presentation, and to spin some fun tunes for your listening enjoyment.

Compass Rose is gifting another amazing bounce house.

At the front doors of the Y Field House, there will be e-cycle deposit bins awaiting your donations of used ink jet cartridges, toner cartridges, old cell phones and used iPads for a recycling effort organized by BRES teacher Judy Dorr. Please help support her efforts as the monies received from your used items will help purchase new classroom teaching tools. Anyone from the community is welcome to drop e-cycles in this outside bin.

The efforts of this event would not be possible without the Y and staff and the continuing kindness from our community of gracious givers. Your goodness and gifts allow our children to be equipped with the tools they need to be Set for Success.

Georgetown Elementary School, a member of our union, will hold their own Set for Success event, at their school, prior to opening day of school on Sept. 1.

FAME matching grants

FAME: Finance Authority of Maine will be returning again this year offering NextGen matching educational grants to eligible students. For $25 and the completion of paperwork, a student may walk away with a $200 matching educational grant.

Through funded donations, many eligible students will receive educational matching grants as a gift. Parents/guardians must be present to complete the necessary paperwork, which requires both the parent/guardian's and student's social security information.

Additional events are planned for the school year.

"We all understand the importance of education to the future of the Boothbay region," said Sue Burge, event coordinator. “Through this partnership with FAME we are excited to provide Boothbay Region families with an early start in their planning for their children's education beyond high school.”