Houston’s 2019 Back to School Fest

August is perhaps the warmest month of the year and what elementary children want to do is to enjoy their summer time and cool off in swimming pools, especially in Texas. Unfortunately, the “new school year waits for no child”, and it’s also the time for them to be going back to or starting school. 

On the first Saturday of August, the City of Houston held the Mayor’s Back 2 School Fest inside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The City of Houston holds this fest each year, before the new school year begins, to help K-5 students from economically disadvantaged families. The participating students receive a free backpack and various school supplies, provided by sponsoring companies and exhibitors, and the Back 2 School Fest also provides health screens, vision checks, and immunization services.

This year was the 9th Mayor’s Back 2 School Fest in Houston City, and an estimated 25,000 students from the greater Houston area, and approximately 100 exhibitors and vendors took part. Among the exhibitors was the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Houston participating for the first time this year, by setting up a booth to promote Mandarin language education and other study opportunities in Taiwan. The Education Division of TECO in Houston designed handmade phonetic boards as giveaways, along with Study in Taiwan items such as folders, pens, and pencils.

A mother startled the TECO staff at the booth when she came up with her two sons and told them that her youngest son’s name is Taiwan! His older brother’s name is Thailand and she explained that she wanted her kids to know that it’s a big world with many countries outside the United States. She hopes that when her sons grow up, they will both have opportunities to travel to the places they were named after: Taiwan and Thailand.