On Saturday morning, the Back 2 School Giveaway at Legacy Park Multipurpose Center distributed 600 backpacks, 100 more backpacks than the previous years, along with fingerprinting ID kits for children. The Alachua Police Department and Just Between Friends of Gainesville partnered with community members and sponsors like Dollar General Warehouse, Sysco Distribution Center, Palms Medical Group and more to host the event.
The APD provided fingerprinting ID kits for children and gave parents identifying information to keep in case of an emergency. The kit is a digital fingerprint system and has been donated with the funds from Just Between Friends since the start of their collaboration.
Alachua police officer Thomas Stanfield said holding the event a week before school starts gives parents time to pick up backpacks and supplies before classes begin. Children at the giveaway answered questions about their names, dates of birth, identifying marks and more, he said. The information went on a sheet of paper along with their fingerprints, which was printed out and given to the parents.
“They usually have fun seeing their fingerprint pop up live on the screen,” Stanfield said.
He said that once the identity kit is completed, the information is not saved in their system, and only the parents have that information.
“We give that to the parents so that God forbid, if anything ever happens to the child, they can turn that in,” Stanfield said. “It will have fingerprints, a picture.”
An Amber Alert was issued last week in Marion County, and the child was found. Stanfield said in those instances, the kits give parents identifying information they can provide to police in an emergency.
“If something happens to the child, we can identify the child that way,” he said.
Stanfield, also a parent, said he tried the kit himself.
“I actually did that kit at my dining table with my daughter to make sure we had the same information,” he said.
Stanfield said that parents who weren’t able to attend the event can reach out and ask to use the kit. He said he currently is working with Karen Miner from Just Between Friends to set up an online sign-up; they hope to have it available within the next two months.
Kim Huffman, the operations manager for Just Between Friends of Gainesville, said there were a lot of families that requested help to clear out their closets and find affordable things for their family for the back-to-school season.
“We have over 700 families, local families, come and consign with us,” Huffman said. “We reorganize them, and then we have generally 3,000 that come through in the event.”
She said the event helps a lot of families, allows parents to connect and brings the community together before the new school year.
“As a mom, motherhood can be very isolating, and coming to an event where it's all moms and meeting new people and collaborating with other moms and being excited,” she said.
Huffman said the event offers one of the few spaces where children can safely play with toys while parents shop.
“It's cool to see all of them running around and collaborating,” she said. “We have different families that meet at the event and then become shopping buddies and come back for the event every time and shop together.”
Lena Camp, a first-time attendee, said the event was a back-to-school shopping spree that helped her save money. She said her son quickly outgrows clothes, and she wants him to be able to play and be a kid without worrying about getting his clothes dirty.
"Kids are just going to beat everything up, and they should,” Camp said. “I don't buy nice stuff for my boy because I want him to get dirty and rip it up.”
She said she found a dragon toy her son had been eyeing for the past month at half the original price.
“It's sweet for everybody,” Camp said.