Just over a week away from the first day of school in Hillsborough County, dozens of military families were treated to MacDill Air Force Base's annual back-to-school event.

Hillsborough County

The Mac back to school event, held annually at MacDill Air Force Base, offers military families free backpacks, school supplies, snacks, and other essential items to help prepare for the new school year. The event is organized by Blue Star Families, a nationwide nonprofit, in collaboration with local nonprofits, community partners, and base commands.

The initiative highlights the importance of community support for military families, with contributions from various organizations and volunteers. Organizers emphasize that the event would not be possible without the combined efforts of the community, reinforcing the strong relationship between the base and local supporters.

Macback to School provides military families with crucial resources

And getting ready to go back to school also applies to our military moms and dads. ABC Action News reporter Blake Phillips was at MacDill Air Force Base this morning with Blue Star families to support military families ahead of the new school year. Definitely a blessing to have the support here and everything that they have to offer. It's called Mac back to school. It's a special back to school event for military families that's held annually at MacDill Air Force Base. We're over 1,200 backpacks in dozens of other items like snacks, school supplies and more are provided for free. So just lets us feel like we're not alone and that we can just kind of have the help if we need it. I mean for kids you need as much help as you can get. Blue Star families is a nationwide nonprofit with a huge stamp especially right here in our backyard and Susie Malloy is the program's director here in Tampa. She says this is way more than one organization. Every single command here on MacDill Air Force Base that chips in plus all of the local nonprofits and the community partners. Even ABC Action News anchors Wendy Ryan and Andrew Kinsey jumping in on the fun. I'm really thankful that we even get to be here. It's great. For Blue Star they know every group working together is what makes an event like this so special. We can't do this without them. As you know nonprofits we rely on our community to help support us and the base relies on our community to help support them and it's a great relationship that we all have here. On MacDill Air Force Base I'm Blake Phillips ABC Action News.

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