AUBURN - By 6:30 p.m., parents and children were lined up out the door and around the building at the New York Institute of Dance and Education Monday evening. But this wasn't for a performance or recital.

This line was for the Cayuga County Chapter NAACP's school supply giveaway.

Eli Hernandez, chapter president, said that giving away school supplies is a national effort of the NAACP, but an event of this nature hadn't happened in Auburn for many years.

“It is a national program and it is a way to try to give back to the people of the community by helping kids and by helping parents,” Hernandez said.

Stacked up inside one of the rehearsal rooms were stacks of notebooks, binders, pens, pencils and crayons, among other school supplies.

Hernandez said there were more than 100 of each item, and they were chosen for students of all ages, from elementary school all the way through high school.

“These things are expensive,” Hernandez said. “Unfortunately they can't come here and get all their school supplies, but these are things that might help and ease the burden a little bit and maybe put $30 or $40 back in the parents' pockets.”

This was a community-wide effort, starting with the NAACP, the event included the support of Sean McLeod and NYIDE as well as Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre and Change International.

Other community organizations such as First Niagara Bank and Wal-Mart also made donations and offered assistance to get supplies to children.

“We have had so much support,” Hernandez said. “It has been great. Sean McLeod has been great with helping out and letting use this space and helping with all this. First Niagara has been very supportive. Wal-Mart donated $1,000 and we put in our money and we were able to get all of this together. The support we have received has just been amazing.”

A last-minute addition was further support from New Beginnings, which donated new bicycle helmets.

“That was also great,” Hernandez said. “It fits in really well with what we are doing and helps to also promote safety.”

Many parents in line said that these days, even at the elementary school level, supplies aren't as simple as they used to be and are increasingly expensive, especially for families with several children.

Shelly Lawrence said she has three children and this year's school supply list added up quickly.

For people such as Lawrence, these kinds of giveaways, and similar ones that stores such as Staples have hosted, have been a major benefit.

“I think this is fantastic,” Lawrence said. “It is tough, things are really expensive and we still have to buy things like calculators, so things like this, where you can get notebooks and binders and pencils are a really big help. I think they should do more like this.”

That is exactly what Hernandez has planned.

“We definitely are going to do this next year,” he said. “We want to do it in August before school starts and make a big day out of it with the police and fire department and have a whole day of activities and get more community organizations involved so we can give more away and help out more kids and their families.”