Harlem club plans Back to School Bash

Harlem's Key Women want to give pupils a big send-off back to school.

The Key Women of America, a service organization catering to children and the elderly, has organized a Back to School Bash.

"We decided as a group that we wanted to do something for the kids in the community and we couldn't think of anything better than helping them prepare to go back to school and helping them get supplies," said Ruth Bonaparte, the secretary for the Key Women Harlem chapter and an event organizer.

The bash is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Friday at Harlem City Park. The event is free, and anyone, especially pupils in the Grovetown, Harlem and Appling areas, is invited to attend.

Bonaparte, a sixth-grade teacher at Grovetown Middle School, said the bash will include games such as a sack race, limbo, bean bag toss, paddle ball and a hula hoop contest. The carnival-style event for pupils preschool through high school also will feature face-painting and free hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and soft drinks.

Pupils can win prizes at the games and their participation also earns them tickets to put toward bags full of school goodies, Bonaparte said.

"We really want them to be really motivated (for the Aug. 4 first day of school)," Bonaparte said about the first Back to School Bash in Harlem.

The 15 members of Harlem's Key Women chapter came up with the bash as they brainstormed for ways to help the community. Several retired and active teachers in the group agreed the bash would be a good way to help pupils and families who have a difficult time each year affording the cost of school supplies and clothing.

"We were trying to figure out a way we thought would make a difference for the kids struggling to get clothing and supplies," Bonaparte said. "We thought this would."

For more information, call (706) 860-5471 or (706) 556-9882.