For even more school supplies events in the OKC Metro, check out our new list for 2016. [Please note: This is a working list last updated July 18, 2016, so check back often for updates and additions. Know of an event that needs to be added to our list? Email and let us know!] is an online charity that allows the community to support public school teachers. Public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests, and you can give any amount to the project that most inspires you. You can search by location or project area of interest from art or math to field trips or specialized classroom equipment. Positive Tomorrows is a school serving homeless children. Visit website for a wish list for needed supplies. July 11-beginning of the school year The Back-to-School Program at Urban Mission provides school supplies for local children qualified as low income. Bring your school supplies list to Urban Mission (3737 N. Portland) between 9 and 11 a.m. Monday through Thursday to pick up the supplies you need.

Parents must bring proof of residency, proof of income, ID for child and printed school supplies list.   Youth & Family Services School Supplies Product Drive (7565 E Hwy 66, El Reno) benefits children and youth in Youth & Family Services emergency shelter, counseling, foster care and smart start programs. See website for wish list and more information. FREE SONIC's Back to School Bash at the Urban League (3900 N Martin Luther King Ave) celebrates the return of school with FREE backpacks and school supplies (while supplies last), school uniform vouchers, health screenings, FREE haircuts and a community resource fair. Children and parent/guardian must be present to receive backpacks and supplies, latest report card required for uniform vouchers. Volunteers needed, sign up here. July 25 - 30 Back to School Event at State Fair Park (3001 General Pershing Blvd). Citizens Caring for Children host an annual event to provide foster children clothes and supplies needed for school.

Each kid gets a personal shopping experience. Day of Hope at People’s Church OKC Campus (800 E Britton Rd) offers haircuts, medical & dental exams, immunizations to kids in kindergarten to 12th grade and backpacks & school supplies for  kids in kindergarten to 5th grade (child must be present) while supplies last. Health professionals, barbers/hairstylists and general volunteers are needed to assist the event. Donations to purchase school supply kits accepted.eclipse venetian blackout window curtain panel Oklahoma City & Boys Ranch Town's Back-to-School Dinner Event at Embassy Suites (2501 Conference Dr, Norman) features dinner and a style show. peppa pig curtains blackoutProceeds benefit a special fund to provide yearly clothing and other basic needs of children at Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children. blue curtain falls testo

Operation Homefront Back to School Brigade will be collecting school supplies and monetary donations to help give children of military families the opportunity to start school with all the supplies they need to be successful. See website for details on how to donate or volunteer. FREE Feeding 5000 & More at OKC Faith Church (I-40 & Portland) will be handing out backpacks full of school supplies as well as food. Backpacks are available to school age children K-12, meals are available to the first 5000 people. levolor curtain rods canada8-11 a.m. (or while supplies last). target dot swirl shower curtainDonations can be made online or at the church.target dot swirl shower curtain FREE Back to School Round Up at Alameda Church of Christ (801 E Alameda, Norman) provides backpacks with school supplies to families in the Norman area as well as an information fair for parents with local non-profit organizations, lunch, kids’ activities and FREE haircuts for students, while supplies last. black curtains 300cm drop

9 a.m. - noon. FREE Slip-n-Slide Family Celebration at Family of Faith Church (13500 SE 15, Choctaw). Backpacks, hot dogs and nearly new clothing will be given away while supplies last. Includes inflatables and  more. My instructor looked at me from the head of the dim room and smiled. Not in a creepy way, more in a “you can do this!” way. But I wasn’t so sure. I had struck a Warrior One pose a thousand times before, yet I still stumbled into the person next to me more often than I cared to admit. Normally I’d just offer a little self-deprecating shoulder shrug and move on, but what would I say in this situation? I just ran into your bare penis”?I had enrolled in a naked yoga class on impulse. My husband was gone for two months that summer, and in my solitude, I began a spiritual exploration of sorts, signing up for Buddhist book groups, taking long, contemplative walks, and reading a good deal of Eckhart Tolle. I was in a normal, fully clothed yoga class when I struck up a conversation with the woman I’d been paired with for partner poses.

She was incredibly flexible.“Wow, what do you do for a living?” I’m actually a yoga teacher myself.”“I asked, eager to show off how yoga smart I was.“Not exactly …” she said. She repeated it for me.Not only did naked yoga exist but apparently it was a very active community. , she explained, since most mainstream gyms and yoga studios were hesitant to host classes, much less announce them on their Google calendars.“You should totally come sometime,” she told me, sensing my genuine curiosity. “A lot of my students are there because they want to go deeper in the practice, and the naked part makes you a lot more vulnerable, more open. It also helps people conquer body fear stuff, and who doesn’t have some kind of anxiety about their own body?”I think we all have a secret “what if?” file in our minds, some sort of pathological fear mixed with the seeds of courage. What if I ran a marathon? What if I tattooed stars to my face? Marathons and face tattoos don’t hold any appeal for me, but right then, I felt the secret thrill of a challenge I had not known I was seeking.“

When’s your next class?” Here’s why I said yes.About eight years before, in college, I had taken a Drawing II class where our first big assignment was to draw a live model. He was older, much older, and I was so embarrassed about looking at his penis. I scanned around the room so I could share a giggly, uncomfortable grin with another student, but everyone was already looking down at their sketch pads, engrossed in their drawings.I turned back to the man and felt my eyes adjust like a camera lens. Instead of seeing the most private part of this man’s body, the thing that he made love with and the thing that he went to the bathroom with, I forced myself to see a series of shapes and light gradations between his legs. And then I drew those shapes and that light, and over the course of several days, the additional planes that made up his whole, fascinating body.This episode shifted my thinking about nakedness. As Americans, we tend to amp up the taboo factor of the naked body. In France, bare breasts in a magazine could mean: “I keep my body clean with this all-natural soap!”

But in America, bare breasts in a magazine mean PORN. My own body during college was a matter of constant frustration. At the time I took that class, every calorie I consumed was done with scientific calibration. I didn’t look at my naked self in the mirror much, but I weighed myself every day. My boyfriend complained about my sharp pelvis, which poked him at night as we slept. When he hugged me, his fingers fit neatly into the valleys of my backbone.My friends finally forced me to see an on-campus counselor, who encouraged me to keep taking art classes. Specifically, the ones with live models.“I think it’s helpful for you to see that there are all kinds of ways of being naked,” she said. “Different ways of being naked.”And it stuck with me. I still have body hangups, but I know a good “different way of being naked” when I see one. This particular opportunity, naked yoga, would be healthy for me, I thought. Oh, and one more thing,” my yoga partner said cheerfully. The next day I strolled into the studio, acting nonchalant.

My heart was beating like a drum.“Are you here for pilates?” the pretty desk girl asked.“I answered, looking at her meaningfully.“She led me to a door that opened up to another door, and beyond that, a dark blackout curtain. I parted it nervously.Before me were eight nude men, mostly middle-aged and seniors, all doing the usual pre-yoga class routine: Smoothing out their mats, stretching, meditating. The gentleman directly to my left was getting a head start by doing some downward facing dog, and I had to step carefully through the doorway so as not to hit his curiously sun-spotted butt with my purse.“I’m so glad you made it,” said my (naked) instructor. “Here, let’s find you a place on the floor” – motioning to a spot between a 30-year-old man and an 80-year-old man – “and you can get changed.”I looked around the room to see if I had missed any women.  Maybe a sweet old hippie lady curled up on one of these mats?“You know, you can wear underwear if you like,” said my instructor, sensing my timidity.

“Whatever you’re comfortable with.”A popular euphemism for “naked yoga” is “clothing optional yoga,” but for me, opting for clothing would defeat the whole purpose. Naked yogis flock to the path to achieve radical body acceptance, after all. Also: If I learned anything in my college art classes, it’s not that raw nudity was sexual so much as the suggestion of nudity. Leaving some parts teasingly covered. Botticelli knew it, Victoria’s Secret knew it, and I knew it. I was going all. Way.We started out the class by standing in a circle and introducing ourselves.“I’ve been coming to class for about a year now,” said George, a rotund man who looked to be in his mid-to-late 60s. “I used to drag my wife along with me, then she stopped.” He paused to sigh. “But I still come.”Variations of George’s story echoed all around the circle. In fact, most of the guys had originally attended with their girlfriends or wives, but when they quit, the men kept going. Had it started out as a bonding activity for these couples, I wondered?

A daring adventure to try together, after the thrill of swing dance lessons wore off? And what was it that kept the men coming back, I wondered?We started our first sequence, a basic sun salutation.“Just swing your arms up, over, and bend at the waist down to the floor,” said my teacher.  “Then we’re just going to hang out in down dog.”It takes a while in naked yoga to forget that you are naked. During our sequences, I kept giving myself all these paranoid little reminders: “Don’t fall over. Don’t look at that guy’s penis. Are you on your period? Don’t look at that guy’s penis.” And like that dog in the dog food commercials, the one who always exclaims to himself, “BACON!” the word “NAKED!” constantly flashed in my mind.They say that the novelty factor of naked yoga takes some time to wear off, but that if you go often enough, you learn to feel more at home in your body. Less like it’s this freaky stranger, your nude self. People have nightmares about being naked in public.

If you can conquer this fear, the benefits are powerful.In class, I was having a hard time breaking through to that higher state, the one where society and cultural norms don’t exist. The room was dark, but I could still see everybody – eight naked dudes – and surprisingly, this was a lot more distracting than thinking about them looking at me. I closed my eyes and focused on my breath, trying to lull myself into something like a meditative state. In between breaths, I started to make out this very faint memory, like a grainy homemade video. But I forcefully turned it off.  But the image was insistent, growing brighter and clearer with each breath. Finally, I allowed myself to watch.I saw myself when I was tiny, probably 4 years old, playing in the backyard. We had just gotten a sprinkler, one of those rotating ones marching along a high arc, then zipping back to its starting point. It was summer in Texas, scorching hot. I remembered shrieking as I ran in and out of the sprinkler’s path, daring it to touch me.

Of course I was naked. The sprinkler’s streams made an itty bitty rainbow in the sun’s rays, and when the water started spraying me again, I screamed and laughed at the same time. I thought life couldn’t possibly get much better than this.When I opened my eyes seconds later, I was back in the dim studio, and the guys were all there. We were now in tree pose.After another pose sequence, we would pack up our things. We’d all put our clothes back on, and drive home to our families and our dinners, and if we had partners then maybe our nakedness would reveal itself later that night, or maybe it wouldn’t. Regardless, our bodies would settle back into their old, familiar ways of doing things, and stay politely covered in the process. At least mine would.When I tell this story to people now, I try to tell them about that memory. Of being that kid again for just two seconds, gloriously naked and free. I tell them this is why people take naked yoga.“Right,” they say, with a hard eye roll.