BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Summer is nearing the end and students in Northampton County are turning a new page into the school year.<\/p>\n
The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley is hoping their annual 2026 Back to School Celebration will bring loads of excitement and shiny new supplies.<\/p>\n
“Only got a pencil,” said Geremiah Vazquez, a student.<\/p>\n
It was the first find for 8-year-old Vazquez, before his big jump to third grade.<\/p>\n
“I wanted to come here and see it,” said Vazquez.<\/p>\n
Part of East Fourth Street in Southside Bethlehem transformed into a back-to-school party as students and parents soaked up the final stretch of summer, before breaking out the books.<\/p>\n
Inside and outside, booths with free haircuts, pre-filled backpacks, face-painting, food and so much more, all free for guests.<\/p>\n
“They literally went above and beyond. This is great,” said Dayanna Cabrera, a parent.<\/p>\n
It was the perfect end of summer bash for students to start their school shopping and connect with community partners, all to help them ease into a brand-new school year ahead.<\/p>\n
“You’re allowing them to connect, but you’re also learning about the resources that the community has to offer,” said Cabrera.<\/p>\n
On the eve of Valeria DeJesus’ first day of fifth grade, the family is making sure to check-off every item on the to-do list.<\/p>\n
“Notebooks and so much candy,” said DeJesus.<\/p>\n
The Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley, a non-profit organization, has a mission to improve the quality of lives for Hispanic and non-Hispanic families, serving the region since the 60’s.<\/p>\n
Operations Manager Lizzette Melendez said it was a bright, sunny day, to serve their neighbors.<\/p>\n
“We receive a lot from the community and this time it was us time to give back,” said Melendez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Summer is nearing the end and students in Northampton County are turning a new page…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,44072,25042,2359,733,227,1510,109638,23300,60355,3315],"class_list":["post-267136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-back-to-school","tag-bethlehem-pennsylvania","tag-celebration","tag-community-event","tag-education","tag-family","tag-hispanic-center-lehigh-valley","tag-non-profit","tag-school-supplies","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}