Usually, Petal First Baptist Church holds uniform drives for the Petal School District at individual schools three times during the spring – March, April and May.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the church will have to conduct the drive a little differently this year.
Through its 501(c)(3) nonprofit arm, First Bridge, the church is operating drop-off points at multiple locations throughout the city, enabling participants to donate clothing items while abiding by current social distancing protocols.
“We’re anticipating having a greater need, in light of COVID-19 and people being laid off and those kinds of things,” senior pastor Brad Eubank said. “So we need our community to rally around us and help us get those used uniforms that are in good condition.
“They can drop those off, and we’ll wash and clean them like always. Our community has always helped us in recent years to do that, so we have to just kind of go about it in a different way than what we normally had been doing before.”
Those dropoff sites, which are currently accepting donations, run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday at Petal Primary School, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday through Friday at Petal Middle School and from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday at Petal First Baptist Church.
Participants are encouraged to drop off new or gently-used uniforms in addition to new underwear, socks and shoes.
Officials also are hopeful to run the annual Petal Family Health & Resource Fair as scheduled, in which residents have the opportunity to get a health rundown, school information and supplies for the upcoming school year.
During the fair, which is free to all Petal School District students and parents, attendees can take advantage of free vision, hearing, dental and speech screenings, as well as professional haircuts, manicures, supplies and uniforms.
The event, which is held in partnership with the Coleman Center for Families and Children – which is part of the Petal School District – is tentatively scheduled for July 27.
However, church officials are keeping an eye on the coronavirus situation before setting plans in stone.
“We still don’t know that yet (for sure), but that’s our anticipated date,” Eubank said. “But we anticipate it being bigger than ever, and the need being greater than ever.”
The uniform drive was started a few years ago when Petal First Baptist Church partnered with Petal Primary School to help provide school backpacks to children.
Soon after, church members decided they wanted to offer a little more to students in the district.
The church began handing out uniforms, tennis shoes, underwear, socks, belts and backpacks to children in kindergarten through sixth grade.
That, in turn, led to the Petal Children’s Task Force, a local nonprofit organization that offers food and utility assistance, asking the church to take the lead on distributing the school uniforms the task force had been giving out.
Since then, the church has used its uniform closet to help families in the school district procure uniforms for the upcoming school year.
“We prayed about it and agreed to do that, so now we’re kind of the go-to for uniforms for the district for those who need school uniforms,” Eubank said in a previous story. “(Several years ago), I met a little boy who had on a pair of his sister’s old shoes that didn’t have any tongues and the shoelaces were a mess, so I bought him a new pair of shoes.
“So then we started seeing kids who didn’t have on clean socks or didn’t have a belt, or didn’t have a uniform that was clean. So it just kind of morphed from there. We want to let families know that we really care about them … and long-term, get people to Jesus.”
