MARSHALL — The United Way of Southwest Minnesota is against hosting its annual Stuff the Bus initiative, welcoming in new school supply donations for the upcoming school year. The drive is accepting donations through next Friday.

“When you start that first day of school, you want that brand new folder, you want those brand new crayons, and you want all the fresh school supplies,” United Way CEO Meg Louwagie said. “We want all kids to be able to start the year off on the same footing, so that they’re not worried about whether they have the school supplies. They can focus on (going to) school to succeed and to thrive.”

The most needed items this year are cap erasers, dry-erase markers, folders, glue sticks, highlighters, tissue boxes, notebooks, pencils and pink erasers. All supplies will be split between several local schools.

Donators can bring other supplies if they wish to be added to the distribution pile, but are asked to mainly stick to the preferred list as that is what schools are requesting the most.

The Stuff the Bus drive had a successful 2024 turnout, donating over 60,000 school supplies to nearly 4,000 students across 22 local schools, according to United Way.

Marshall has several donation sites, and there are a handful of other area businesses accepting donations as well. All donations are accepted during regular business hours.

Marshall sites

• First Independent Bank

• Karls

• Kruse Motors

• Lockwood Motors

• Marshall-Lyon County Library

• Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce

• Menards

• Minnwest Bank

• Reilly Home Team

• SW/WC Service Cooperative

• Tall Grass Liquor

• United Way of Southwest Minnesota

Sites around the area

• BMO – Minneota, Ivanhoe

• Citizens Alliance Bank – Granite Falls

• First Independent Bank – Russell, Tyler, Ruthton, Balaton, Cottonwood, Hanley Falls, Wood Lake, Lucan and Hendricks

•Johnson Memorial Health – Dawson

• KJOE Radio – Slayton

• Granite Falls Chamber– Granite Falls

• Panka Insurance Agency – Ivanhoe

• Pioneer PBS – Granite Falls

• Sanford Medical – Canby, Tracy and Westbrook

• SheBrews Coffee – Fulda

• Minnwest Bank – Tracy

Following the drive, United Way is also welcoming volunteers to help sort and distribute Aug. 1, 5 and 6.

“As those donation sites come in, we need those supplies organized and counted so we know how many we have, so that we can distribute appropriately. The day before our distribution day, and our distribution day, are our bigger volunteer opportunities, where we haul everything over to the Merit Center and get it all set up,” Louwagie said. “(In the afternoon), the schools will start showing up, and they’ll come in, and the Merit Center is fantastic for this. They just drive in, we load up their supplies, they drive right out.”

Those interested in volunteering can seek more information and register at https://www.unitedwayswmn.org/STB.

“Our internal programs focus on childhood literacy, so this is one of the things we do to help those children who are in need,” Louwagie said of Stuff the Bus. “Buying school supplies can be very expensive, so we try to alleviate that pressure on the parents, as well as the child.”