The West College Historic District Association gathered more than 500 school supplies Sunday to donate to local schools through its Back to School Supply Ice Cream Social.

“The goal was not only to get together with neighbors, but it was to donate school supplies for local schools,” said Candy Shaughnessy, president of the Historic District Association.

Residents of West College Street gathered for an Ice Cream Social catered by Milky Moo’s Homemade Ice Cream, but instead of just coming for fun, everyone in attendance brought school supplies.

“We were brainstorming about what we could do for the schools as the Historic District,” Shaughnessy. “We have new families moving in with young children, and we thought it would be nice to support the schools that the children in our neighborhood actually attend.”

Shaughnessy pointed out that this is not the usual time of year for school supply events, but because August is such a busy time of year, the Historic District decided that it would be beneficial to wait until the school year was in full swing.

“School supplies are things that students and teachers need year round,” Shaughnessy said.

“They need them all year, not just in August.”

Shaughnessy said members also collected snacks so that students who were not able to bring snacks during snack time could have a snack available.

“It was a really good and supportive turnout,” Shaughnessy said. “Hopefully it is something that we can do every year.”

Even non-residents wanted to contribute to the effort.

“We had a couple of people that are not residents of the Historic District that gave monetary donations,” Shaughnessy said. “I used the donation to purchase some of the supplies.”

The supplies were donated to Covenant Christian School and Troy Elementary School.

The West College Historic District also began to plan their Christmas Tour of Homes. Residents began to sign up for different roles of the event, and tickets will be going on sale soon.

The Christmas Tour of Homes will be Dec. 12 from 5 to 8 p.m., with tours every 15 minutes for groups of 10 people.

“The tour is something fun that is coming up in December,” Shaughnessy said. “We will be holding another meeting in October to finalize all the planning with our committee.”