Trucks galore fill the parking at the Bethany Assembly of God for the 2023 Agawam Junior Women’s Club’s Touch-a-Truck event.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
AGAWAM — Trucks, trucks and more trucks will be in the parking lot at the Bethany Assembly of God on Saturday, Aug. 10. It may seem like an odd sight to see at a church, but the trucks will be there as part of free event to benefit its food pantry.
The Agawam Junior Women’s Club will host its third annual Touch-a-Truck event, which last year collected 800 food items for the food pantry. It was enough to fill several containers, said Gayle Gordon, an administrative assistant at the church.
The event will also include the club’s program for first-time school bus riders, the “Safety Bug,” which ran every August for 47 years at the Agawam Public Library until it was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the club started planning to resume the program in 2022, members wanted to bring it back with “a new and updated twist.”
Kamila O’Neill, chair of the event, said the idea to combine the bus program with a Touch-a-Truck event was suggested by one of its members.
“The past two years have been very successful — we’ve received lots of positive feedback from the community. We intend to continue this as an annual event,” O’Neill said.
O’Neill said the event is “first and foremost” to benefit Bethany’s food pantry and the community: “We’ve been able to completely fill the pantry with donations of non-perishable goods at this event and our club also benefits from exposure to the community.”
She said the food collection not only helps meet the food needs of many people in the area, but it also ties into a National Day of Service project advocated by the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. That day is a time when all GFWC clubs highlight an area of need, such as eliminating hunger and food insecurity, take action to address it and raise public awareness about its importance.
“We appreciate that the Agawam Junior Women’s Club is partnering with us to benefit our food pantry,” said Gordon. “It also probably helps with donations, because it makes people attending aware that it exists.”
Gordon said the pantry doesn’t have a set goal for donations, but always needs “any and all” nonperishable food items, as well as personal care items. The pantry is open from 12:30 to 2 p.m. every Monday and Friday, except holidays. It’s open to everyone, including non-Agawam residents, and is accessible once a month.
The food pantry also accepts donations from the public as well as from local businesses. It has received multiple donations from the Agawam Police Department and from food drives run by area schools.
“Local farms donate fresh vegetables and fruit, and monetary donations are accepted and used only for the food pantry,” said Gordon. “Our community has been extremely generous in partnering with us to assist our neighbors in need.”
O’Neill said the expected lineup for the event includes vehicles from the Agawam Police, Fire and Public Works departments, Interstate Towing, Westfield Gas & Electric and a Republic Services recycling truck. She added that the club is waiting to hear back from others interested in bringing a truck to the event.
“Kids will be able to climb into every truck, play with the steering wheel and honk the horn,” said O’Neill. “It’s very hands-on and fun for all. Drivers and operators of the vehicles also will be there to answer questions.”
There won’t be any food trucks at the event, but O’Neill said the club is working on having an ice cream truck.
“We try to have a few young entrepreneurs at this event each year. We invite anyone under the age of 18 who has a small business and offer them a spot for free at this event. Last year, Shriners Clowns and Boomer, the Springfield Thunderbirds mascot, made appearances, and we hope to have them this year.”
Perhaps the most important vehicle there will be a school bus from the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Cooperative, which provides bus service for Agawam schools. It will have representatives at the event to answer questions.
The goal is to provide a fun and relaxed atmosphere for first-time bus riders so they can experience being on a school bus. Donna Shibley, who has run the bus rider program for many years, said the last time the program was at the library was 2019.
“We had 100 attendees and were saddened to not be able to offer this in-person event in 2020. But in 2022, we came up with a new way to get this much-needed information out about riding a school bus for the first time,” she said.
Shibley said the bus will remain parked so kids can practice boarding it, sitting in the seats and learning basic bus safety tips.
“We also will have handouts on safe bus riding and coloring pages for kids,” she said.
O’Neill said the event takes place 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 10, at 580 Main St., with a rain date of Aug. 17.
“We hope to see a good turnout. Based on last year, we expect around 500 people,” she said.
