(Seguin) — A local church is hosting a big back-to-school event of its own this weekend.
Greater Second Baptist Church is inviting the public to its Community Outreach and Back-to-School Carnival. Pastor James Matthews and his wife, Devon Matthews, are encouraging everyone to take advantage of this free event.
“This will be our second community outreach, but our first Back-to-School Carnival all together here in the city of Seguin. It will be Saturday, August 8, and it is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” said Sis. Devon Matthews.
Sis. Matthews says the church was looking for a meaningful way to give back to the community, and they decided that the Back-to-School Carnival was a great way to do that.
“The goal was to try to just give back to the youth in the community of Seguin by making sure the children were prepared and have some supplies, basic supplies and necessities to start the year off right. We all know that everyone doesn’t have the same financial situation. And ever since my husband became pastor here a few months ago, we have just fallen in love with the city of Seguin and we want to do whatever we can to help,” said Matthews.
Matthews says families just need to stop by on Saturday. She says they will have free school supplies and other items available for those who attend.
“It’ll be first come, first served. Children must be present, no exceptions. The children must be present. If you have to work or you’re out of town, you can send your kids with a trusted family member or neighbor or something like that. We do need to account for each child. And this is for documentation purposes, so we know what we’re looking at for next year,” said Matthews.
The church will be handing the school supplies out at the top of each hour during the event. Matthews says this will allow them to make sure that the supplies are given out over the course of the event.
“We’re going to give out the school supplies in batches. We’re gonna give them out at the top of 10 a.m., the top of 11 a.m., and 12 noon to ensure everyone has a fair chance to get supplies. In the meantime, we will have games, we’ll have prizes, we’ll have snacks, carnival foods, hot dogs, popcorn, you name it. All of that is available for the community to just come out, get to know us there at the Greater Second Baptist Church. Just know this is just the start and the beginning of many things we’d like to do for the Seguin community,” said Matthews.
The church is located in downtown Seguin. Matthews says they are easy to find, and they pray for a big turnout on Saturday.
“We are notably across from the famous Haunted Magnolia Hotel. We are directly across from there. We will be having the street barricaded off, right there between Donegan and Nolte streets. Again, that’s 208 South Crockett Street. It’s first come, first served, children must be present, and we will be giving out the supplies in batches at the top of every hour,” said Matthews.
Matthews says she and her husband have done similar events in San Antonio. She says none of this could have been possible without the generosity of so many people and businesses in the community. She says a special thank you goes out especially to Texas Heritage Wealth Management, which made a huge donation of backpacks this week.
“We are a very small church, but we have a big, big heart. So we were only expecting to give out initially less than 100 sets of school supplies, but that has since doubled. And we would like to also thank one of our donors who donated 72 backpacks,” said Matthews.
Because of those generous backpack donations, Matthews says they need more donations of school supplies to help fill each of the backpacks. She says you can call or stop by the church if you would still like to help.