In Elkhart and Goshen, the first batch of Elkhart County students boarded school-bound buses this morning, the start of a year that will bring constant change.

Some changes will be fun, as renovations are completed and sports seasons begin. Other changes will be challenging, such as taking ISTEP+ in both the fall and spring, a move toward testing more efficiently.

And other changes will be scary, as families scramble to create financial sources in a stagnant economy. Within corporations like Elkhart Community Schools, where the poverty rate is close to 60 percent, it may be that back-to-school shopping was an unreachable luxury.

To ease the strain, people throughout the area are stepping up to help out local families. Here's a snapshot of the good we've seen in recent weeks:

TEACHERS GIVE BACK

When more than 900 Elkhart Community Schools staffers attended a yearly back-to-school session at Memorial High School Tuesday morning, most brought along a basic food or personal care items to donate to Church Community Services.

The giving started with a simple e-mail from ECS Superintendent Mark Mow, asking teachers to donate on behalf of the school system and the Elkhart Teachers Association.

"The economy certainly reminds of us of the need to do these things," Mow said, "but I think that spirit has always been there. Elkhart has always been a very generous and giving and caring community in many ways."

At the end of the morning, tabletops in the school's cafeteria were piled high with goods, and an extra $665 in cash was presented to CCS, an organization often faced with dwindling food pantry stocks.

"It's bringing supplies we don't normally get otherwise," CCS executive director Dean Preheim-Bartel said after the donating was done. "They really went all out."

Then, Communities Actively Relating to Elkhart Schools opted to match the $665 donation.

"We saw a need and wanted to show people that CARES is an organization that cares about all people," CARES president Brian Buckley said. "We saw an opportunity to do something nice for the community."

PEOPLE GET INVOLVED

After years of working with local children, longtime CARES volunteer Pete Thornton decided to launch Matthew 18, an organization which will provide JCPenney vouchers to ECS students in need of clothing, backpacks or other school necessities.

"It would come up in conversation," Thornton said, "the things they didn't have. I became aware of shortages of normal, everyday things that they didn't have."

Along with fellow board members David Rowley and Greg Wilkerson, Thornton applied for establishment through the state worked with ECS officials to make the idea a reality. Thornton said students will begin receiving vouchers sometime this fall, as teachers, social workers and counselors recognize need.

"There wasn't an organization to provide material things," Thornton said. "Sometimes social workers spend their own money, and we'd like to step in and say, 'hey, you don't have to do that.'"

And of the organization's name? Thornton says Matthew 18 is one of the Bible verses where children are mentioned.

"Jesus basically says, 'anything that you do for those little people, you do for me.'"

CHURCHES PITCH IN

Agape Missionary Church and Bethel Assembly of God Church are two local churches that held fundraising events for students last weekend. While Agape threw its now-annual Back Pack Giveaway event, complete with barbers and a mobile dentistry unit on Saturday, the Bethel congregation held its first annual Neighborhood Back to School Block Party on Sunday. Volunteers handed out 170 bags filled with school necessities and were on hand to serve refreshments to about 260 people in attendance.

"We're just trying to be a positive influence in our community with so much negative going on," Bethel Pastor Jeffrey Peters said.

Peters added that people were especially responsive to an event held for the benefit of children.

"Once you mention you want to do something with kids it opens up their hearts for everything."