The Airdrie Boys and Girls Club is helping parents and students save big on back to school supplies, and are helping themselves out with funds at the same time.  

The club is holding it's first ever Back to School Fair tomorrow (August 25).  Sam Morros, Youth Education Coach with the Boys and Girls Club, explains that the idea started out as just a book fair then snowballed from there.

"We did a book drive with the idea of having a book fair at the end of the summer so we got a lot of fantastic donations of books, we got a ton, I'm staring at a mountain of them right now.  But along with that, we got some amazing donations of back to school supplies.  We got some backpacks, paper, notebooks, art material, things like that so we got to thinking and we decided to expand on the idea and have an entire back to school fair."

With an entry donation, Morros says about $5 to $10 per family, people can come in and browse the back to school supplies and take whatever they still need. 

To put the icing on the cake of the back to school fair, your entry donation will also get you a barbeque lunch and treats, all supplied by Superstore in Airdrie.  The money raised from that will go towards a couple of new programs that are starting in the fall, according to Morros.

"In my department specifically, which is education and employment, we have a new entrepreneurship program called "Call Me Boss."  That's going to centre all around the creation, marketing, selling of a product.  Investigating how businesses flow.  We also have a program called "Cosmo Connections" which is brand new to us.  It's a career, job skills program that lets young people explore jobs in the beauty industry so we'll talk about doing hair, makeup, nails, all that stuff and how we can take maybe what's a passion now and turn it into a career down the road."

During the Back to School Fair, you'll also have the chance to speak with Boys and Girls Club staff about their fall programs, along with school and evening opportunities for children and youth.  

Morros says while the Boys and Girls Club is known for their summer camps, they have many more programs that happen year round.

"We have programs and services that run for kids up to age 18 and then we have programs that even go beyond that age and support for families and parents as well."   Morros says the club is reaching upwards of 500 young people.  

The Back to School Fair runs from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm tomorrow at the Youth Centre at 200 East Lake Crescent. 

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