The nurse's office at Frontier Middle School had an unusual array of supplies Wednesday morning.

In addition to first aid kits, boxes of crayons and markers, binders, pencils and other school supplies were stacked up on tables. The school supplies are headed to the Nicaraguan city of Tipitapa, where they'll be donated to area children.

Frontier's students collected the supplies, lead in part by seventh-grader Cody Boyd. As an organizer, Cody visited classrooms and talked about Nicaragua and recruited students to help collect things and put up posters.

Families in Nicaragua don't have extra money to spend buying new school supplies every year, Cody said.

"Their average income is $450 a year," he said. "Our parents make that in, like, two weeks."

Overall, the group collected enough supplies to fill up six or seven suitcases, Cody said.

Dorinda Jacobson, a former teacher, also helped organized the drive at Frontier. Jacobson coordinates family mission trips to disadvantaged countries.

A local group of parents and students has traveled to Africa twice already, Jacobson said. The group is working with the Nicaragua Christian Education Foundation on this year's trip.

"Where we're taking these goods, they've very disadvantaged," Jacobson said.

The NiCE Foundation's mission is to improve the lives of disadvantaged Nicaraguans by providing them with the tools to meet some of their long-term needs, including education, medical care and employment. A total of 36 people are making this year's trip to Nicaragua.

Jacobson said she tries to gear the trips towards getting students involved in the world around them.

"I started doing this so that kids would be thinking of others ahead of themselves," Jacobson said.

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com.