Students lined up around the block the Margo Fournier Centre September 1 for the Prince Albert Grand Council’s Back to School Community Initiative.

People were lined up around the block at the Margo Fournier Centre in Prince Albert Sept. 1 for PAGC's annual back to school event, and Ten-year-old Gabriel Villeneuve gets his hair cut. Photo Supplied

The annual event offers free supplies to students starting the school year.

Geoff Despins is PAGC’s director of urban services.

“We have crayons, books and pencil boxes for the elementary kids,” he said. “For high school, we have binders, Duotangs, paper and pens. We also have backpacks.”

Free haircuts were also available to students who wanted them.

Despins said the whole idea behind the initiative is to ensure students start the school year off on the right foot.

“So, what we do this for is you don’t want to start the school year without anything. You don’t want to go in saying, ‘I don’t have a pencil, a backpack…’ Even a simple pencil box. So, we’re here just to support and help everybody out so they can go to school with a great self-esteem.”

The PAGC director of urban services said the event typically sees as many as 500 students and has been running for the past five years.