We are proud to report that Smith County collected 117 school supply-filled backpacks this year for our annual School is Cool backpack drive, blowing last year’s 102 out of the water! The generosity of Smith County employees is amazing!

This is the third year Smith County employees have donated to the backpack drive and each year they have collected more!

Smith County Juvenile Services collected the most again this year, with 37 backpacks!

Other departments included:

Justice of the Peace/Constables Office, Precinct 2: 15 backpacks

Smith County Tax Office/Auto Registration Department: 15 backpacks

Auditor’s Office: 12 backpacks

Adult Probation Department: 10 backpacks

Precinct 3 Deputy Constable Aaron Davlin works part time for the county and is a manager at Residence Inn by Marriott. He and his hotel co-workers donated 8 backpacks.

We also want to thank 7th District Judge Kerry Russell, Commissioner Cary Nix, Kim Gould and Christina Haney from the Purchasing Department, Thomas Gregory from the Sheriff’s Office, and Patti Simmons and Laurita Vodak from the County Court-at-Law 3, for their individual donations.

We even had two little girls, Kayla, 8, and Chloe 3, drop off a backpack for the second year in a row! Kayla said she wanted to help a local child get the school supplies they needed! Her daddy works for Smith County at the Andrew’s Center.

And to all of the people who anonymously dropped off backpacks, thank you!