Comanche Nation Youth Program Hosts Back to School Bash

On Saturday, July 29, Comanche Nation Youth Program held a back-to-school bash at Watchetaker Hall.

Director of the Youth Program Randi Attocknie-Clayborn said there were 865 students who stopped by for backpacks and school supplies from Pre-k through 12th-grade.

“This year we just have a little package box and they get to pick their backpack out and we send them on their way and we're hoping that with any surplus that we may have that we're going to be sending those to our outreach offices in Oklahoma City as well as Dallas and then if we have in Anadarko as well and then we will also be attending an outreach in New Mexico so we'll be able to take some of those surplus items there as well,” she said.

Attocknie-Clayborn said this is the first year they went through this kind of vendor where everything is packaged and shipped.

“So that's something that we are looking to do for future purposes,” she said. “Because we want to serve as many of our community members whether they're local or our tribal members that are local or they're non-local we definitely want to be able to do that so something to look forward to in the future for sure.”

Attocknie-Clayborn said the program is trying to give out supplies so parents don’t have to spend more money on August 1.

“A lot of our kids are going to be starting school pretty soon and we know that we're trying to push things before tax-free weekend here in Oklahoma,” she said. “Because we want to make sure that they don't have to spend extra monies on things that we already are going to be able to provide for them.”

Attocknie-Clayborn said she felt great at the event.

“We have you know been issuing our visa gift cards,” she said. “We've been trying to make sure that you know we're taking care of the needs for our students that are going to be going into and of course, we've expanded our services to pre-k as well. So, we make sure that if they are enrolled if they're going to school, we want to make sure that they're well equipped with what we can help them with. So, being able to keep a good energy that's really based on the people that are coming in too you know I've had a lot of smiling faces coming in and they're happy and excited you know we want them to you know. No one's going to leave empty-handed even if you know they've got younger siblings or their grandmas are bringing them whoever it is we want to make sure that they get to have a meal get your backpacks and enjoy your day. And we wish them a good school year and that's really the message that we want is we want everyone to have a wonderful school year.”

The Visa gift cards help with back-to-school shopping, such as clothing and school supplies.

“But we try to alleviate that need by having these events like this so they can go mainly to school clothes because we want to make sure that our kid's basic needs are met for their school seasons,” she said.

Attocknie-Clayborn said the application is open for the Visas and will be available throughout the school year, depending on needs.

“We have it broken down by grades this year and this…is our first year doing this so we have a it's set for like our pre-k gets a certain amount same thing with our kindergartners through fourth grade fifth through eighth and then our high school students,” she said. “So, they kind of it goes up in increments and if they're interested, they're more than welcome to look at our website or they're more than welcome to give our office a call we love to visit with our community.”

Several organizations were at the event, including Enrollment and Indian Health Services.

“We really enjoy what we do we love serving our people this is what we're here to do this is our mission and our purpose,” she said. “And we team up with other people that are used to dealing and working with our public regularly. So, their customer service and our customer service we want it to be top-notch and we want to be able to enjoy providing this service to our tribal members so it is really a pleasure and we say you know it is a pleasure to for us to be able to do this for our community.”

She thanked the summer youth staff, Property and Procurement, Food Distribution and anyone else who helped during the event. Comanche Nation Entertainment provided food for the bash.

Attocknie-Clayborn said people can keep up with events on Comanche Nation News Facebook and the Youth Program’s website.