Members of the Boone Sunrise Rotary Club raised funds and provided volunteer support for the 9th annual Back 2 School Festival, held August 6-7th at Watauga High School in Boone.

Over 1,300 students were supplied with backpacks, school supplies, new shoes, information about community support services, and other items throughout the two-day event. Festival organizers take remaining supplies and work over the next few weeks to serve families that could not attend the festival, while also distributing remaining supplies to teachers across the community.

Through a partnership with AppHealthCare, over 60 COVID-19 vaccines were administered to eligible school-aged children and family members during the festival, marking one of the largest single-day vaccine events of the summer.

The Back 2 School Festival has been a fundraising priority of the Boone Sunrise Rotary club for the past several years. The club served as a Gold Sponsor of the 2021 event, and club volunteers worked in “Kathy’s Corner,” to distribute new shoes to children throughout the weekend.

Club member Brian Crutchfield, who also serves on the Back 2 School Festival Board of Directors, shared the following summary:

“We had a great festival with 1301 in person, 6 curbside, 28 absentee, for a Total of 1335. There were Rotary volunteers everywhere I looked, all four days of set up and then delivery. Diane and her husband were there both festival days. Kathy worked in Kathy’s Corner and Hanes directed traffic again. Lane and Joan were front and center. Lane greeted families as they entered the supply room and used his Spanish quite fluently. John Eckman and Amy were everywhere doing all kinds of jobs. Both Lane and Chuck Eyler donated water bottles. Jeannine, Amy, Joan and Dianne handed out all those bottles. Ben was there both days and brought Mary this year as a first timer and she could not say enough great things about the festival. Dan Sullivan was there in supplies for at least his fifth year in a row. John Cooper was there too and at one point we took a photo of Rotary volunteers and could barely fit them in the frame.”