BATON ROUGE - Thousands of kids are counting down the last few hours of their summer break as school starts back up on Monday for students in East Baton Rouge Parish.

But families say getting everything the students need does not come cheap.

"She's growing, he is growing... I think $1,500," grandmother Mary Anyaele said.

Anyaele says she helped to make sure her three grandchildren were ready for the new school year.

After she bought them supplies, she found out about the Back to School Bash hosted by EBR, where she was able to get extra items for her grandbabies.

"I wasn't able to go to all of the booths, but everything was nice," Anyaele said.

The event was held on Saturday at the River Center to help families with the hefty school supply price tags. More than 50 tables were covered in free materials for students.

"We're just trying our best to make people feel connected, not only giving them a high quality education, but making them feel like this is our school system together," said the superintendent of the East Baton Rouge School System, Dr. Sito Narcisse.

Not only did students leave with all of the items on their supplies list, but families were also able to meet school officials.

"We don't want families trying to navigate through; we want them to navigate in one place. We also have everyone they need help from to be here, so it can make information easier," Narcisse said.

Students were also able to get a free haircut and play games with School Resource Officers at the event.

"It is nice that the community came together, because there are a lot of families in need of this," Anyaele said. "Everything was just awesome."