What is Blast Back to School?
For our 11th Annual Story County School Supply Drive, our goal is to collect enough supplies to help more than 1,700 students in Story Count school districts! We will partner again with the National Night Out/ Hope in Christ Back 2 School Celebration to supply backpacks to the students they have helped in the past, so that they can work to provide Athletic shoes for families in need at their event in August. With the increased number of students we are hoping to help for the 2025-26 school year, we are working to collect $25,000 to support our Story County families!
Did you know that on average, families spend over $100 per child to purchase necessary school supplies? For many families this is just not possible on limited budgets. Story County Blast Back to School Event aims to relieve the burden of back to school expenses for local families of K–12 students.
The Blast Back to School Event has been helping our Story County families since 2015. The BBTS event collects supplies and backpacks throughout the spring and summer, packs the backpacks with the supplies, and then the participating schools distribute the backpacks to any student that registers for the event.
There is NO FEE to the schools or students! The whole event is done through donations from our community businesses and individuals, and community volunteers.

Visit us in May 2025 for Dates and Times for our 11th Annual Blast Back to School Event!
Ways you can donate to our program
Monetary Donations
You can donate by sending a check to:
United Way of Story County
c/o Blast Back to School Supply Program
315 Clark Ave.
Ames, IA 50010
You can also donate by going to the United Way’s donate website and make a donation there. Please specify “Blast Back to School" where is asks for “Association with a special project”, there is a space to type in a custom program where it says “If other, please specify.”
Supply Donations
Drop off box locations
Come back in May 2025 for information on Donation Drop off box locations
If you have any questions, you can contact us at blastbacktoschool@gmail.com. Thank you!
Event Volunteers
You can sign up to help out the BBTS program at the link below!
Volunteer Opportunities:
Pack backpacks on our Packing Event Day August
Check back periodically for additional volunteer opportunities with BBTS.
Our planning committee
Shane Arp - Collins-Maxwell School District
Jerri Baumeister - Community Volunteer
Erin Denker - Ballard Community School District
Brittany Dueker - City of Nevada Library
Anna Fagervik - Ames Community School District
Lori Fricke - Collins-Maxwell School District
Kate Hanson - Community Volunteer
Jodi Heeren - Nevada Community School District
Branden Kelley - Colo-Nesco Community School District
Kara Kinser - Colo-Nesco Community School District
Becky Lundy - Community Volunteer
Jenn Peterson - BecomeMore Group and Cornerstone Church
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