Community members lined up around Purcellville Baptist Church Saturday morning for the Tree of Life’s annual summer giveaway, held to help parents afford back to school costs.

Director of Communications Jennifer Del Grande said the event was the largest the nonprofit has held so far with 752 people attending – over 300 more than last year.

“We’re so glad we were able to give so many to those in need,” Del Grande said.

The event was run by Regional Director for Western Loudoun Maddy Cockerill and Yvette Perri who managed the clothing portion of the giveaway.

Residents waited in line outside the church, while groups of 75 at a time were taken in to shop the free clothing items, receive a backpack filled with school supplies, pick out Bibles, choose dental supplies and receive a free haircut. Visitors were also given the chance to shop free furniture and extra school supplies and have their blood pressures taken.

All 533 of the prepared backpacks were given away and by the end of the morning, there were no school supplies left.

 

“We had a lot of new people,” Del Grande said. “Definitely a lot of people who had never been there before… It was amazing and we were very excited.”

She said the nonprofit receives donations for the annual giveaway from local churches, the Purcellville Police Department, businesses and individuals.

The event is designed to help families face the growing costs associated with sending children back to school in the fall. On average, families spend $875 on clothing, shoes, school supplies and electronics for children in elementary through high school each year, according to the National Retail Federation.

K-12 shoppers are budgeting $309 on average for electronics, $253 for clothing and accessories, $142 for school supplies and $170 for shoes.

This year, national back to school spending is expected to reach the second highest on record at $38.8 billion.

Del Grande said one community member who has attended the event for three years said this is the only guaranteed haircut her children receive each year.

“We gave 70 haircuts,” she said. “That was crazy. We’ve never given that many haircuts.”

TOL typically holds giveaway events in both Leesburg and Purcellville, but this year because of the size and effort to put them on, the organization opted to consolidate into a single day in Purcellville. Del Grande said the event was attended by eastern Loudoun residents despite its western Loudoun location.

 

“When you look at the whole of Loudoun County it’s just amazing that people would even come from Sterling to get backpacks and things like that. So, I know there’s a lot of need.”

TOL is supporting a similar event that will be held at Sterling Park Baptist Church this Saturday, Aug. 17 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.

This article was updated at 12:17 p.m. Aug. 16 to update the Sterling Park Baptist event time.