You know that excitement some kids feel on the first day of school — the joy of seeing friends, the curiosity about what’s ahead, and the simple thrill of cracking open a fresh notebook and writing on the very first page with a sharp, new pencil?

At 1^st Franklin Financial, back-to-school season brings us a different kind of joy. Instead of getting new notebooks and pencils, we have the fun of giving them out to families in the communities we serve. And honestly, it’s a rewarding experience.

Folks from more than 60 of our 1^st Franklin Financial branches participated in back-to-school supply drives this year. They wanted to help students start the 2024 school year off right. We shared the items we gathered — everything from backpacks full of food to loose leaf paper and colorful crayons — with local schools, charities, and our customers.

Along the way, we got the chance to connect with many people who do so much for kids.

In Stephens County, there’s a wonderful program called Food2Kids. They send kids home from school on Friday afternoons with a backpack full of food to help their family over the weekend. The need is great — we were told they go through more than 250 individually wrapped crackers every week, along with all kinds of other food. Since April of this year, folks from our Investment Center and corporate office have donated over $1,800 in food and money, including 1,440 packs of crackers, to help this worthy program.

We are glad for these opportunities to help kids right here in our local community. But we know that children don’t just need support during the school year. So we were happy to make a large food donation to MUST Ministries, so we could help fill Cherokee County School summertime lunch kits for kids.

And as summer ended, we were proud to be a community partner in the 10th Annual Pack the Bus School Supply Drive to benefit students in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes in Louisiana. Meanwhile, across the state, our team in Shreveport was busy joining up with Roy’s Kids to share school supplies with our local children. And in Georgia, we were glad to help the folks at Project Reach G.A.N.G. with their Back 2 School Rally.

But it wasn’t all just supply drives, as important as those may be. Some of our branches got creative and did drawings so that local kids could win backpacks full of school supplies.

And along with helping the students start the year off right, we wanted to make sure we celebrated the folks who make school happen every day — the teachers.

So our Shreveport team dropped in at A.C. Steere to stock up the teachers’ lounge with snacks and some 1^st Franklin Financial gear, plus coloring books for the children. And the finishing touch? We bought donuts for the teachers and staff for their first day back. 😊

If you or your young students will be going back to school soon, we wish you a beautiful school year. And we hope you find moments of joy, whether you’re sharing what you can or receiving what someone else is glad to give. You never know how far a kind word or a box of donuts can go toward brightening someone’s day just when they need it.