Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's shaping up to be an unusual school year.

A local business and church are responding to a semester involving masks, social distancing and virtual schooling.

The owners of Kiddie City, located at 330 Whitestown Road, will offer a place for children using the cyber school option this coming school year.

First United Methodist Church, located at 232 E. North St., will have an outdoor giveaway of adult and children's clothes and back-to-school supplies from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 22.

Kiddie City owner Rich Gall and director Shannon Leary said the day care center will have an all-day program in its downstairs space for students attending cyber school.

There will be staff members available to help children with assignments, if necessary, and they will watch the children the rest of the time.

Kiddie City will provide breakfast at 8 a.m., a snack at 3 p.m. and wifi availability.

Parents will provide lunches and children will need to have their own laptop, tablet or device.

Gall said the hours will remain 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. during the week without exceptions for school delays, cancellations or Act 80 holidays.

The program is limited to 20 to 24 students up to middle school age.

Gall said the great thing about the program is children won't have to ride on a crowded school bus, and they will be limited in exposure to the same children and the same staff every day.

“Parents won't be allowed in the building,” said Gall. “We'll take the children's temperatures. They will have to wear a mask when moving through the center.

“Downstairs, there will be enough room for social distancing, so they won't have to wear masks,” he said.

Masks, and for some gloves, will be featured at the church giveaway, according to Monica Perry, the church's business administrator.

“We're going to open the Second Grace clothing shop for people who might need clothing,” said Perry.

At the same time, the church is taking donations of school supplies — book covers, ball point pens, single-subject notebooks, erasers, washable glue sticks, Crayola markers and crayons, plastic folders and wooden pencils — to be handed out during the event.

Items can be dropped off at the church office between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A link — https://a.co/1EXE8td — connects to an Amazon wish list allowing donors to place an order that will be shipped directly to the church office.

The clothing and school supplies will be given away in the parking lot between the church and the former Knights of Columbus hall, according to Perry.

There are no income restrictions for those seeking clothing or supplies.

Volunteers and recipients must wear masks, and recipients will be given gloves if they want to handle the clothing.

“We felt the need out there. We wanted to do something for the community,” said Perry. “It's been a hard spring and a hard summer for everyone — kids, the adults, the church, everyone.”

For more information about the giveaway, call the church office at 724-283-6160.

For more information about Kiddie City's all-day program, call 724-282-3337.