By Michael Daniels
Journal Staff Writer
For the last five years Franklin Park Lincoln Car Dealership has taken it upon themselves to donate book bags and school supplies to school children in the Toledo area right before school starts in the fall.
In the past, the Dealership just sent boxes of supplies to different schools and churches and let them distribute the supplies to the students. This year they tried a different approach, they are sponsoring some live school supply giveaways at different sites. Heading up this new program is Mike Colbert, one of the company’s sales personnel. You might recognize him because he consistently has an ad in The Toledo Journal featuring his name and picture for the Franklin Park Lincoln Car Dealership.
On one weekend he had an event passing out the free supplies to school children who needed them. The events also had free food, hot dog, hamburgers, chips, and something to drink, and everything was free. Mr. Colbert said, “What we do is particularly important to the children.There is a need for this. As expensive as things are today some families can’t afford these necessary school supplies. We have 100 book bags filled with other useful school supplies that we are giving out today.” Saturday August 13, 2022, Mr. Colbert and his assistants were at the Tabernacle of Faith Church in the Old West End on Central Ave.
As the good news spread around, parents and children from the area came out and had lunch, picked up their school supplies and socialized with Mr. Colbert and his wife.
Mrs. Colbert commented about the giveaway saying, “It’s always good to give back to the community. When my children were young, I only wish we could have gotten free school supplies. They are all grown up now, but at least my grandchildren can take advantage of this.”
Mr. Colbert added saying, “All together we had 350 book bags to give away and we are going to keep moving around until they are all gone.”
Free Hot dogs for the event was donated by Rudy’s Hot Dogs and chips were supplied by The Toledo Journal.
His next stop is on August 17, 2022, at Foster’s Barbershop located at 1645 W. Bancroft St., Toledo, Ohio at 1:00 pm. Come by, have a snack, and get your free school supplies while they last.
