With a rollicking bounce house and an uplifting acoustical guitarist gently strumming a six-string in front of a horde of hot-dog swilling kids and their parents, you'd be hard-pressed to believe the start of school was just a week away.

But as eagerly as children wolfed down the free food with their right hand, their left was usually unzipping a spanking-new canvas backpack filled with the necessities of the impending school year.

"I'm looking forward to the start of school. I don't know about them," said Sarah Tagle, as she waited patiently in line at the Salvation Army Worship Center with three students for a free cachet of back-to-school goodies that generally included a backpack loaded with familiar yellow No. 2 pencils, loose-leaf binder paper, spiral notebooks, erasers, and even a retro-cool packet of Tang drink mix and other grade-appropriate materials.

Asked why she was looking forward to the start of school, Tagle looked down at her brood - Gloria, beginning kindergarten; Carlos, an incoming first-grader and Marissa, a 10th-grade student - and smiled.

"I'll finally have a day off without children," Sarah exclaimed. Would she miss them?

"They'll all be back at 3:30 each day," she noted.

As he waited for his new loot, 13-year-old Skylar Remer wondered aloud if he was looking forward to a new year at CY Junior High.

"I'll have to study a lot, and I hate studying," he said. He'd make some new friends, right?

"I got a couple of good friends already," he said, smiling.

For more than a decade, the Salvation Army has made this back-to-school giveaway a near rite of passage for hundreds of returning Natrona County schoolchildren. Practically anyone who needs assistance is eligible for the free school supplies, many of which are donated by area merchants or paid for by benefactors who give to the Salvation Army.

Those who need it may also obtain a limited amount of free clothing for the school year as well.

Salvation Army Capt. Dan Wilson, his brow beaded with sweat from ferrying cold drinks and hot franks to the masses enjoying the picnic, said the church hopes to serve 350 students this year. As many as 500 families have accepted the Salvation Army's generosity in past years.

"Each person's case is judged on its own merits," Wilson said. "We don't want to turn anyone away."

Michelle Sydow brought her children Eli and Ally to join in the fun and load up for the new year.

"Without this, I would have been scraping by," said Michelle, whose children attend Pine View Elementary.

Let the countdown begin.