The Education Celebration, which provides free school supplies to Griffin-Spalding County School System teachers who then pass them along to needy students, will take place on July 28.

This will be the fourth consecutive year for the event.

Those in charge of the event visited the Griffin Country Club Thursday to thank the Rotary Club of Griffin for its past support and to ask for assistance again this year.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind program, I assure you,” said school system Assistant Superintendent Denise Burrell.

About 70 percent of the entire student population in the school system “depend on us for a hot breakfast and a hot lunch,” said Burrell, referring to the fact that almost three-fourths of all students are on a free-and-reduced lunch program.

As many parents may be struggling to equip their children with proper school supplies, the Education Celebration, which is sponsored by local manufacturer Norcom, provides needed relief, Burrell said.

“Without Norcom (and other sponsors), our students would not have those things,” she said.

Norcom President Hal Rahn deferred the praise to other local sponsors, such as the Rotary Club, who have helped make the Education Celebration a success every year.

“The children could not receive what they receive without your help. The stuff you are helping us do does get to the students,” Rahn said.

Also speaking to the Rotary Club was Lisa Miller, the school system’s current Teacher of the Year. She shared an anecdote of a 5-year-old student in her class who came to school without a backpack for several days.

The student wouldn’t respond when asked why she was without a backpack, probably because she felt embarrassed, Miller said. When Miller gave her a backpack she had received from the Education Celebration, the student’s face started lighting up and she kept that smile every day she came to school, Miller said.

“You will never know just how much receiving something from you helps,” she said.