When Kennedy Elementary School paraeducator Carmen Seusy returns to work next week, she’ll also return to the colorful backpacks, crisp notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils that accompany the start of another school year.

Yet several of her students, Seusy recognizes, may go without new school supplies on their first day back at Kennedy, which serves primarily low-income families. For children whose parents can’t afford these essentials and aren’t capable of understanding why, the effects can be emotionally and academically crippling.

“They show their frustration in other ways,” Seusy said. In her experience, that could mean anything from behavioral problems to sinking grades to developing, at a very young age, the feeling that perhaps school isn’t for them.

That’s why Seusy — along with Max, her 6-year-old son — decided to spend one of the few remaining days of her summer vacation handing out school supplies to kids and parents Wednesday at the former Borders building in downtown Lawrence.

Over the next two days, Seusy and her fellow volunteers will distribute backpacks, pencils, pens and other classroom necessities to more than 1,000 Douglas County students in need.

The annual program, which also provides new shoes to students sixth grade and below, is a coordinated effort led by The Salvation Army, the East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Cooperation, the United Way, Penn House and the Lawrence Rotary Club. Community donors collectively gave around $20,000 to the cause this year.

Around 35 percent of Douglas County students qualify for free or reduced lunch plans at school, said Lt. Marisa McClure of The Salvation Army.

Even in dual-income households, it can be difficult to spare $100 or more on just one child’s school needs, she said. For single parents trying to support a family on their own, it can be even more so.

“When our families are really stretching their dollars, it’s stressful,” McClure said. “It’s emotionally stressful to think you can’t provide what your kids need, and the kids feel that stress, too. We’re trying to take away some of that stress.”

It’s a struggle Deanna Milton knows well. The Eudora mother of four stopped by the old Borders building Wednesday afternoon, her 14-year-old daughter, an incoming freshman at Eudora High School, in tow.

As a single parent, she has turned to the Back2School program several times over the years to collect supplies for her children, three of whom have since graduated from high school. Some years, Milton said, she has been able to buy supplies on her own. But this year, having just spent the last 12 months recovering from medical problems, she could use some extra help.

“When you’re living on a fixed income, it’s a great resource,” Milton said. “There’s no other resource out there for school supplies.”

Now, thanks to the Back2School program, Milton’s daughter will kick off her freshman year in style — with a brand-new, pink-and-black floral-patterned backpack on her shoulder.

Supplies will continue to be distributed at the old Borders building, 700 New Hampshire St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to noon Friday. Families who have not yet registered are encouraged to call The Salvation Army, 843-4188, to be placed on a waiting list.