Lebanon hospital, businesses team up to collect "boatload" of school supplies with third annual Crayon Crusade

In a partnership with area businesses, organizations and churches, St. John’s Hospital-Lebanon repeated its successful “Crayon Crusade” this fall to collect school supplies for Laclede County students and schools.

Nearly 50,000 school supplies and $3,000 in cash were donated to area schools, including Lebanon, Conway, Joel E. Barber and Gasconade.

St. John’s co-workers collected enough supplies to more than fill a boat in the hospital lobby, as well as boats from area manufacturers and companies that were displayed on the hospital lawn.

Local boat manufacturers G3 Boats, Lowe Boats, Tracker Marine, Sundancer Pontoon, Phat Buoys and Landau rallied more than 50 area businesses to donate supplies and cash.

“Response to this year’s crusade was amazing,” says St. John’s Hospital-Lebanon President Tim Johnsen, whose participation in this year’s drive included being “stranded” in a boat in the hospital’s pond to collect supplies. “What started out as a hospital co-worker competition three years ago has now spread throughout the community with a number of gracious partners and hundreds of generous donors who contributed.”

Johnsen says hospital co-workers formed four teams that competed to see which one could collect the most supplies.

“The competition was fun and, of course, the schools benefit from it,” says Johnsen. “It’s hard for some families to handle the extra cost of school supplies and certainly our teachers and the school systems do what they can to help the students. As a community hospital, these are our families, and we wanted to help.”

Johnsen says community and business support was key to the success of this year’s Crayon Crusade.

“We’ve always had good support from the community and the competition within our system led the drive, but this year, the community really stepped up and gave generously,” says Johnsen. “We intentionally scheduled the event to coincide with the community’s tax-free back-to-school weekend and the Brumley Gospel Sing, which brought in 8,000 to 9,000 visitors to the area. In all, this was the best year yet for the Crayon Crusade.”

Lebanon Schools superintendent Duane Wildhelm says supplies collected during the Crayon Crusade are a boost for students whose families struggle to purchase school supplies and for teachers, who often spend their own money to buy supplies.

According to the most recent Missouri Kids Count Report, which profiles educational, demographic, health and the economic conditions concerning children and families, and information from Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, nearly 50 percent of Laclede County students qualify for free or reduced lunches, which is 10 percent higher than the state average of 39.2 percent. More than 50 percent of Laclede County children are enrolled in the MC+ or Medicaid health care insurance programs. The state average for enrollment in this program is 37.2 percent.

“We can’t thank St. John’s in Lebanon and the communities and businesses enough for helping with this project,” says Dr. Wildhelm. “This project is just another example of how the community cares for each other. These supplies are a real blessing for both the students and the teachers.”