As students finish buying their school supplies and books for the fall semester, some under-privileged youths are preparing for theirs through donations.

Phi Eta Sigma and the Office of Volunteer Programs are co-sponsoring their Second Annual School Supply Drive to benefit under-privileged youths in local schools. The drive, which began Thursday and will continue through Sept. 9, aims to raise enough to donate to other school districts as well.

The two organizations are collecting pens, pencils, notebooks, glue, crayons, markers and rulers to donate to Salt and Light, a non-profit food and clothing distributor. Salt and Light will distribute the school supplies to under-privileged youths from kindergarten to high school in the local school districts.

“You got to give the kids the tools they need to learn,” said Justin Litz, junior in LAS and president of Phi Eta Sigma. “Notebooks and pens and pencils, these are as basic as food and clothing as far as education goes. Without these things, these kids would be at a severe disadvantage.”

Litz feels that by helping the local youths in the district, Phi Eta Sigma, a national honor society that promotes academic excellence, is not restricting their services to just the campus.

“We all know that education is so important,” Litz said. “So if we [Phi Eta Sigma] can do something to help out educationally, we’d like to do that. That is why we have chosen to continue with the school supply drive.”

Amy Sponsler, director of the Office of Volunteer Programs, recalls the problems not having school supplies caused in her past as a Spanish teacher in North Carolina.

“When kids don’t have it, they’re embarrassed and that often times causes them to either act out, or they become disinterested in their class or they will try to steal it from other people,” Sponsler said.

Sponsler remembers spending hundreds of dollars on basic school supplies, such as pencils, for her students.

“What just may be a box of pencils to you or me is a lot to someone else,” Sponsler said.

Jackie Peden, main office secretary in Central High School, said that though school supplies are not as important to students at the high school level as they are to the younger students, there are still a lot of students that have a problem obtaining basic supplies at the high school level.

The school supplies can be donated in the Office of Volunteer Programs office that is located in room 277 of the Illini Union. Phi Eta Sigma will also be on the quad on Thursday, Sept. 1 and Tuesday, Sept. 6 with informational fliers about the drive.

“A bottle of glue, a box of pencils, we’ll take it all,” Sponsler said. “You don’t have to come in with a lot of stuff. Every little bit helps and we’re grateful for every little bit that we get.”