HCPSS Partner Helps to Prepare Students for Success

September 16th, 2025

Roy and Susan Appletree holding school supplies in front of a school bus. — Roy and Susan Appletree attending the 2025 “Stuff the Bus” School Supplies Drive.

There’s a special feeling that comes with starting the school year with a backpack full of new school supplies.

“It gives you confidence,” says Roy Appletree. “You don’t have to think twice when your teacher asks you to take out your pencil and paper; you just pull them out of your backpack and you’re ready to go.”

For nearly 25 years, Appletree and his wife, Susan, have been committed to helping Howard County students experience that feeling.

The Appletrees’ work to support students began when they retired nearly 20 years ago. Roy, a former affordable housing executive, and Susan, a former elementary teacher, knew they wanted to continue to work with and support the community in some capacity. Their interest drew them to Christ Church Link, a non-denominational hotline that had started a pilot program in response to parents calling in for help. The program provided backpacks filled with school supplies to several local public schools.

“That work really resonated with us,” Roy recalls. “I wanted to do more ‘hands-on’ work in the community. And Susan knew from her experience teaching how important it is for students to start the school year with the supplies they need. The backpack program brought those things together for us.”

Initially, Roy and Susan helped the church congregation by collecting and organizing supplies. As time went on and the backpack program grew, they decided to take on a bigger role. And in 2008, they officially assumed responsibility for the “Prepare for Success” (PFS) backpack program.

A box of school supplies. — Prepare for Success provides new school supplies to students across Howard County.

“A lot of things were different then,” Roy recalls. “At the time, we were only serving a handful of schools and worked with the school district in a fairly limited way. We collected loose supplies, had volunteers pack them, and could easily transport everything in our cars. It was a pretty small operation.”

Since then, much has changed, including the level of need PFS is trying to meet.

“When we first got involved with Howard County, the [Free and Reduced Meals program] rate in Howard County was around 8 percent. Now it’s approximately 30 percent. There are just a lot more students and families who need support,” Roy notes.

HCPSS Logistics Staff with boxes of supplies to deliver on behalf of Prepare for Success. — HCPSS Materials Management and Logistics staff play a key role in delivering supplies gathered by PFS to schools. (Photo credit: Prepare for Success)

To meet that growing demand, the scale of the PFS program has also changed. Partnering with other local for-profit and non-profit groups and organizations, including HCPSS’ education foundation, Bright Minds, PFS now purchases, collects, and distributes enough new school supplies to fill more than 5,000 backpacks and serve students at schools across the county.

“We are fortunate to have incredible community support for what we do,” says Roy. “We have partners who donate money and supplies; we have partners who donate storage space to house what we collect; we have partners who help us pack the backpacks. It’s truly a team effort.”

HCPSS staff and students also play a critical role in PFS’ work, Roy notes.

“HCPSS’ pupil personnel workers (PPWs) and Multilingual Office staff do an amazing job of helping us get our supplies to the students and families who need them. And they know both what students need and want, which is key in terms of choosing the supplies we buy,” he adds.

Cedar Lane School students packing supplies for Prepare for Success. — Cedar Lane School students assemble backpacks to be distributed to Howard County students.

HCPSS’ Office of Materials Management and Logistics also has taken on an essential role in PFS’ work in recent years. They take backpacks prepared by Cedar Lane students and PFS volunteers, and deliver them and additional school supplies to more than 4,000 students across more than 40 HCPSS schools.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see how the Appletrees and PFS bring people and groups of all kinds together to achieve the common goal of serving our students,” adds HCPSS Partnerships Specialist Priscilla Reaver, who has worked with the Appletrees and PFS for many years. “Their work has positive ripple effects across our schools and our communities.”

HCPSS PPW Jomo Fowlkes, who serves as HCPSS’ primary liaison with PFS, agrees.

Susan Appletree and Kim Hurst at the 2025 Stuff the Bus event. — Susan Appletree (l) and Kim Hurst (r), who serves as PFS’ volunteer coordinator and operations manager, at the 2025 Stuff the Bus school supplies donation event.

“It’s hard to say enough good things about PFS. Working with them is like working with family. They are so warm and friendly, and they care so much about helping our students. No matter how our needs grow, they always find a way to meet them,” Fowlkes says, adding that through their work, PFS helps to take away students’ stress about not having the things they need.

“PFS enables our students to walk into the classroom with the supplies they need and confidently say, ‘“I am ready to learn.’”

More information about Prepare for Success, including how to donate money and school supplies, is available online.