After 17 successful years of collecting supplies for school children, the annual Wendy’s of Bowling Green Stuff the Bus Live Event will continue to evolve.

For the first time since its inception in 2005, the event will move from the old Bluegrass Cellular parking lot to CrossRoads Express on Scottsville Road.

The change is nothing new for WDNS-FM (D-93) morning show host Tony Rose, who has been helping lead the event since its inaugural year.

Rose is looking forward to reestablishing a sense of normalcy for the event July 24 after it successfully cleared the many hurdles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Stuff the Bus will take place on that Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“What blows me away through this whole thing is that every year it gets bigger – even during a danggum pandemic,” Rose said. “It just continues to grow. Doing it in a new location is exciting for us. This is pretty much our Super Bowl. It’s our golden day.”

Stuff the Bus has grown so much over the years that it’s now turned into its own nonprofit organization raising money for local schools 12 months a year.

The foundation officially kicked off its “Houchens Summer of Giving” on July 1. The initiative is an avenue for the campaign to extend its reach to several counties throughout the region.

Customers at the following locations can purchase in-store “mobiles” to support Stuff the Bus: IGA locations in Glasgow, Leitchfield, Columbia, Morgantown and Burkesville; Price Less Stores in Tompkinsville, Franklin, Russellville and Bowling Green; Crossroads IGA locations in Smiths Grove and Bowling Green; Ace Hardware in Brownsville; and Crossroads Express’ new location on Scottsville Road in Bowling Green.

There will also be Summer of Giving pop-up events in Franklin with Mint Gaming Hall, in Logan County with Logan Aluminum and numerous business locations in southern Kentucky.

Rose said donations made at each location will go back to local schools and stay in the community in which they were given.

“The hardest part is getting people to understand that just because we have Bowling Green in front of our name, doesn’t mean we can’t help out other counties directly,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know we are in 15 counties across our region now.”

Through all of 2020, Rose said the foundation allocated more than $50,000 in grants and scholarships on top of all the school supplies they were able to collect.

He said an estimated $20,000 of that total came from the Summer of Giving initiative.

“This year, the goal is to hit that $25,000 mark during our Summer of Giving,” Rose said. “We want to be able to collect tons of school supplies at the bus. I would love to get to $75,000 raised through all of 2021.”

Initially, the event took place over four days and had the popular radio host living in the bus for more than 100 straight hours.

Thankfully for Rose, the creation of the foundation has eased the physical burden into just one day while also becoming more accessible to the rest of the region throughout the year.

Since 2005, Rose said he has lived a total of 51 days on the bus.

“This is a blue-collar, working man’s nonprofit,” he said. “It’s been fun to see these communities embrace this.”

The foundation will also be handing out a total of $3,000 in college scholarships during the main Stuff the Bus event July 24.

The first two endowments are part of the inaugural Steve Meredith Stuff the Bus Memorial Broadcasting Scholarships and will go to Western Kentucky University broadcasting students Sophia South of Alvaton and Katherine Brooks of Russellville. Each is worth about $500.

The new endowment will join the Bobby Hunton Memorial Scholarship, which awards two $1,000 scholarships each year.

Hunton and Meredith passed away over the last three years and were co-founders of the initial Stuff the Bus event alongside Rose.

“To see where this started, which was some dummy living in a school bus for four straight days, to see what it is now is special,” Rose said. “We couldn’t be in classrooms with kids last year, and we couldn’t have assemblies. Come August, we are finally going to be able to get back to normal.”

Donations can be made in person July 24 at Crossroads Express or online anytime at StufftheBusKY.com. Any business that wishes to get involved should email info@StuffTheBusKY.com.

Teachers interested in applying for classroom grants can do so at the website by clicking on the “Grants” tab.