The parking lot at Carolina High School overflowed Saturday morning, not just with cars and a winding line of families, but with hope, generosity and excitement for the year ahead. Thanks to United Way of Greenville County’s annual School Tools project, 3,500 students received brand-new backpacks filled with the supplies they need to start school ready to learn.

For many families in Greenville County, back-to-school shopping is a financial stretch. According to the National Retail Federation, families with K-12 students were budgeting about $144 per child this year—just for basic school supplies. That figure doesn’t even include clothes, calculators, computer supplies or other essentials. For families already working hard to cover the rising cost of rent, utilities, groceries and more of life’s essentials, the burden of back-to-school shopping can feel overwhelming.

That’s where School Tools steps in.

This year’s event helped ease that financial pressure, giving families a big reason to smile. We saw it firsthand as students eagerly picked out their backpacks and peeked inside to find everything from notebooks and folders to pencils and crayons. For many, it was the first moment they truly felt ready for the new school year.

This incredible community effort was made possible by the hundreds of United Way volunteers and corporate partners who contributed their time, resources, and dollars to make School Tools a success. From buying supplies and packing backpacks to greeting students with a smile, your caring and generosity was deeply felt by the families we served. This year, more than 50 companies and organizations from all across Greenville County hosted supply drives. Several more also sent teams of volunteers during the work week to help sort supplies by grade level and stock each backpack so every child who attended our School Tools event went home with everything on their supply list for the year.

One story that touched our hearts came from an unexpected place: Perry Correctional Institution. When some of the incarcerated men there heard that prison staff were holding a supply drive for School Tools, they chose to step up and support it themselves. They pooled their limited resources and donated $500—money they could have used for personal needs—to help our students.

“A lot of them expressed the fact they wished they had stayed in school and obtained their diploma or even gotten their GED,” Perry Correctional Warden Curtis Earley told WYFF. “They said since they were not able to do that, they would like to contribute to someone else doing that.”

Their compassion is a powerful reminder that generosity knows no boundaries.

To everyone who played a part in this year’s School Tools project, we thank you. Your support didn’t just fill backpacks. You filled hearts, lifted burdens and opened doors to a new school year for thousands of Greenville County students.

A very special thanks to our 2025 School Tools sponsors

Impact Sponsors
• Dodge Industrial-Greenville Plant
• Duke Energy Foundation
• The Greenville Drive
• ITW Hartness

Community Sponsors
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina
• Greenville Arena District
• Lockheed Martin
• McMillan Pazdan Smith
• Messer Construction
• QuikTrip Corporation
• Regional Management Corporation