The 10th annual Everybody Counts event is set to return later this summer.
Organizer Deb Nuss said the event was formed ten years ago following a report delivered to the USD 383 Board of Education on homeless children in the school district.
“At the time, there were about 250 children reporting as homeless in the district,” she said. “We put together the event to provide them with services they may not have access to.”
The first event was held back in 2014 at the First United Methodist Church and has only expanded since it was first held. Nuss says that many social services are provided to those who attend.
“We offer several free health services,” she said. “There are school and sports physicals, blood pressure checks, vision checks as well as Pawnee Mental Health Services providing mental health checks.”
This year’s event is scheduled for Saturday Aug. 3 from 9 am to noon at the Douglass Education Center in the 900 block of Yuma Street.
Nuss says she expects around 45 different agencies to be in attendance at this year’s event.
“We just want people in our community who may not have access to these services come out and not only use them,” she said. “But also make the community aware of these wonderful free services.”
