Children held out their new backpacks on Friday, waiting for them to be filled with school supplies like they were trick-or-treating.

Toledo students like 11-year-olds Codey Dunlap and Jorden Casey walked from table to table together inside of Seaway Marketplace in central Toledo as part of the Let’s Get a Healthy Start Back-to-School event hosted by Mercy Health and several of its partners including SSOE Group.

“It was cool but it was a long, long line getting in here. Bring back PBS Kids,” Codey said referring to a decrease in funding for WGTE Public Media.

Volunteers at the event passed out nearly 400 backpacks, which were provided by SSOE and filled with school supplies including rulers, notebooks, and scissors, among other items.

Families would then walk around to learn about diff

See Full Page