Staff report

PEMBROKE — The Lumber River Council of Governments will be providing vouchers for grandparents and older relative caregivers to purchase school clothes and school supplies.

The vouchers will be provided through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Council of Governments office on C.J. Walker Road in Pembroke.

The $100 vouchers will assist grandparents and older relative caregivers who are not parents but are raising minor children or raising a “dependent child or adult with severe disabilities who will be attending school” in August.

To be eligible for a voucher, the grandparent or an older relative caregiver must be 55 years of age or older; must have custodial care of the child in their home without the child’s parents living in the home; must be the child’s primary caregiver with financial responsibility for raising the child; must be raising a child between the ages of 5 and 18 years old who will be attending school this calendar year, or; must be raising a severely handicapped child between the ages of 5 and 22 years old who is enrolled in a special education program.

Grandparents who received a voucher last year will be ineligible to apply for one this year. Each voucher can be redeemed from Aug. 13 to Aug. 17. Selected applicants will be contacted by telephone by Aug. 10.

Applications can be downloaded and printed online at www.lumberrivercog.org. Applications can also be picked up from the N.C. Cooperative Extension Office in Lumberton and mailed in the envelope provided or faxed to 910-521-7556. All applications must be received at the Lumber River Council of Governments, 30 C.J. Walker Road, COMtech Park, Pembroke, N.C. 28372, no later than 5 p.m. on Friday.

For information, call Anne Oglesby at 910-272-5080.