PORTSMOUTH — A $2,500 grant from the Southern Ohio Cleanup Company will help a local nonprofit keep giving students backpacks filled with school supplies in four southern Ohio counties.
The money supports Mary’s Clothesline, which provides supplies to students whose families cannot afford them in Scioto, Ross, Pike and Jackson counties. Organizer Marcie Barlow said the group matches the supplies in each backpack to the supply lists issued by schools in those counties, so students arrive with what their teachers actually asked for.
Each filled backpack carries an estimated retail value of $40 to $50. The program began with a single backpack distribution in 2019 at Portsmouth Raceway Park and had grown to five distributions by 2025.
Southern Ohio Cleanup Company President and CEO Pat Timbes said the service eases financial and psychological stress for families and children heading back to school, and helps students do better by giving them the tools they need.
The grant is the latest community investment in a program that has expanded steadily since its first distribution six years ago. By spreading distributions across four counties, Mary’s Clothesline reaches families in both larger towns and rural districts across the region.
Families and schools interested in the program can watch for distribution announcements ahead of the next school year, when the new funding will help stock backpacks for local students.
