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Mahoning Valley dispatchers hosting Saturday event to collect school supplies
BOARDMAN
The Dispatchers of the Mahoning Valley’s second annual “Cruising for Crayons” car show will be Saturday to collect school supplies for local districts.
“We wanted to be able to help the community,” said Cassi Quiggle, a chairperson for the event and dispatcher for the Boardman Police Department. “Us dispatchers are always behind the scenes, and so we just wanted to step out into the community a little bit more and help out the students and teachers.”
The event will take place in the front parking lot of the Boardman Township Administration building, 8299 Market St. Registration begins at noon, and the event will end at 5 p.m.
The main attraction is a car show, for which participants are asked to bring school supplies rather than pay an entrance fee. Spectators are asked to bring supplies, Quiggle said.
This year the event will benefit the Jackson-Milton Local School District and the Hubbard Exempted Village School District. Quiggle said one reason the dispatchers chose to benefit a Trumbull County school is because their organization would like to become more involved with Trumbull County dispatchers.
“We’re trying to step forward and represent most of the dispatchers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties,” Quiggle said. “We wanted to spread the benefit.”
Last year’s event benefited Boardman schools and was as successful as a first-time show could be, Quiggle said. About a dozen cars participated in the car show, and the dispatchers collected about five large containers of school supplies.
Quiggle said the organization hopes to get twice the number of cars in the show this year, and to triple the amount of donations they receive.
In addition to the car show, the event also will feature music from DJ Dynomyte of Dynomyte Entertainment, a wildlife program from Alchemy Acres Animal Sanctuary, refreshments, a 50-50 raffle, 911 educational materials, face painting and a representative with information about Veterans Affairs health care benefits.
Quiggle said Alchemy Acres Animal Sanctuary also will bring puppies in need of adoption, which she said was a huge hit at last year’s show.