BOWLING GREEN, Mo. — The North East Community Action Corporation (NECAC), Salvation Army and Walmart have teamed to sponsor a “Stuff the Bus” school supply collection.
The event takes place July 29 to 31 and Aug. 5 to 7 at the Bowling Green Walmart. A special display will be set up so shoppers may drop off purchased products. Items will be equally distributed by NECAC to Pike County school districts.
NECAC Pike County Service Coordinator Penny Dixon recalls two teenaged siblings discussing how they would get supplies when their parents couldn’t afford the cost. One said to the other “We’ll get them somehow.”
“There’s a definite need for all the schools in Pike County,” Dixon said. “There are enough kids in our communities that go without school supplies that teachers have to buy out of their own pockets. We don’t want them to have to do that.”
Eligible items include textbooks, notebooks, paper, writing instruments, crayons, art supplies, rulers, book bags, backpacks, handheld and graphing calculators, chalk, maps and globes. The list does not include watches, radios, cd players, headphones, sporting equipment, portable or desktop telephones or office equipment.
The second weekend of the effort coincides with the Missouri Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday. Purchases of specific products from Aug. 5 to 7 will be exempt from state sales taxes. County sales taxes will still be charged in Pike and Audrain, but customers won’t have to pay city taxes in Louisiana and Bowling Green. Shoppers in Vandalia and Elsberry will be charged local taxes.
The sales tax holiday applies only to supplies not exceeding $50 per purchase, clothing with a taxable value of $100 or less, computer software of $350 or less, personal computers and computer peripheral devices of up to $1,500 each and graphing calculators not exceeding $150.
For more information, call Dixon at 573-324-2207. Other details about the sales tax holiday are available on the Missouri Department of Revenue website at www.dor.mo.gov/taxation/business/tax-types.