Bay Area malls collecting school supplies for kids

TAMPA, Fla. - School is about to start but some students don't have the supplies they need. Bay Area malls are coming together to collect those school items for students.

In the heart of the Westfield Citrus Park Mall is a very important collection box for the Hillsborough County Education Foundation. 

"We're able though these kinds of campaigns to replenish those resources in our teachers' resource center so that we can continue to serve students and teachers in Hillsborough County," said Paul Casebolt, chief program officer for the Hillsborough County Education Foundation.

The foundation is having it's annual "Stuff the Bus" campaign to collect school supplies.

"With school supplies being the foundation for students to be able to successfully do their work," said Paul. "We want to make sure that the kids have the tools that they need in order to be successful."

The supplies are put into their teaching tool store where teachers can shop for their students.

"We were able to distribute $169,000 in school supplies to students at more than 90 schools with an impact of over 20,000 students," explained Paul.

The foundation is so thankful to the community.

"We have some wonderful businesses and organizations and individuals that help us every year with this and the other programs' initiatives that we engage in at the foundation and we can't say thank you enough," said Paul.

The donation boxes are at all Westfield Malls. For information, visit www.EducationFoundation.com/News.