It was another successful year for the Lacombe and District Family and Community Support Services’ Tools for School program. In total, 194 children and youth in the community will be starting off the school year right; however Executive Director of the Lacombe FCSS, Crystal Zens expects they will have helped at least 200 youth by the end of the month.  

In 2021, the organization helped a total of 126 students get their supplies.  

“It's such a increase I think from last year, probably the economy and new families moving in. We had a lot of Ukrainian families we helped,” said Zens.  

Zens was thankful to the City of Lacombe and Lacombe Police Services for providing a few volunteers to help out with stuffing the bags of schools supplies. She was also very thankful to the community for their donations and support for the program.  

Photo of volunteers working. Image courtesy of Lacombe FCSS. 

“Donations were outstanding with lots of corporate sponsors and many individual sponsors. Then of course a lot of the local stores collected change and product so we could make up extra bags. The love and support was profound this year,” she explained.  

Heading forward, the Lacombe FCSS is gearing up for some of their fall campaigns.  

“We're getting organized for our Coats for Kids, Fill-a-Fridge, and our fall campaigns. We are doing a volunteer run, trying to recruit new volunteers not only for our agency, but for other local Not-For- Profits in Lacombe too. If anyone is interested in volunteering we have lots of opportunities in Lacombe and we're happy to match them to, if not our agency, other agencies,” said Zens.  

Additionally, the Lacombe FCSS is looking forward to once again running Opening Minds through Art for people with dementia, and making a few other programs more accessible.  

“We're also going to be launching the registration for Babysitters Course and Home Alone Course. We're hoping to bring that cost down so it'll be more accessible to more people,” said Zens.  

The Lacombe FCSS will also be hosting a charity golf tournament in partnership with Team Jigger and Blindman Brewery on September 23rd at the Wolf Creek Golf Course.  

For more information on the Lacombe FCSS you can visit their website or Facebook page.  

Photo of Lacombe Police Services volunteering. Image courtesy of Lacombe FCSS.