A Back To School Bash offering free book bags to younger students plus other school supplies, games and free food will be held Saturday in Greenfield.

The new event, for students who attend school in Greenfield, will be held from 1-4 p.m. on Fifth Street in front of the Greenfield Elementary School.

The event is being coordinated by the The First Presbyterian Church in Greenfield with help from other local churches, business, clubs and individuals.

“We have a missions committee and a couple of the members always wanted to do something like this in the community,” said Heather Smith, the Presbyterian church missions chairperson. “We talked about it and decided to do it.”

Smith said the bash has been in the planning stages since May. She said the street will be blocked off and there will be a starting point where students will get a notebook and parents will be asked how many kids they have so the committee will know how many students to plan for next year.

She said the book bags are actually backpacks that were purchased from Walmart. They will be given to students, at least while supplies last, entering preschool through the fourth grade.

“Since it’s the first year we’d like to keep it centralized to that age group because we don’t know how many kids we’ll get,” Smith said.

She said other school supplies will be given away by other churches, and other supplies will be rewards when kids play some of the carnival-type games other groups will be running. She said notebooks, glue sticks, pencils, rulers, binders, pens for fourth-graders, tissues, disinfectant wipes and even some dry erase makers will be available.

“We have the school supply lists and if it’s on that list, we’ll have it,” Smith said.

In addition to the games and supplies there will be free food including hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy and drinks.

Smith said the committee is planning for about 200 students and if more than that show up there may not be enough backpacks and supplies for everyone.

She said the plan to is make it an annual event.

“It’s become a very big deal,” Smith said. “We feel like it will be really good next year after we get the first year under our belts.”

Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522 or on Twitter @13gillilandj.