The action on the field for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has not been very good this year and the news gets even more grim. But Bucs owners are trying to make lemonade out of lemons, at least for bay area students. At  Sunday's game against the New York Giants, Bucs fans are being asked to donate school supplies, alarm clocks, gently used clothing, hygiene items, shoes and new socks and underwear.

The Glazer Family Foundation is teaming up with Teaching Tools for Hillsborough Schools, a nonprofit organization that provides free classroom materials to local teachers, and the Oasis Network of Tampa Bay, a nonprofit that directly distributes donations of children's personal items to Hillsborough County's most needy public schools, to conduct the annual school supplies drive. 

Volunteers will collect donated items from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.at the yellow collection stations outside all gates and club entrances at Raymond James Stadium. All fans who donate an item will have the chance to win a piece of autographed Buccaneers memorabilia. In the past six years, more than $20,000 worth of school supplies have been collected at Buccaneers home games and distributed back into the Tampa Bay community.

Even if you aren't going to the game, you can still get in on the act. You can drop off supplies at Buccaneer headquarters at 1 Buc Place in Tampa from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays. For more details, you can call the Bucs at (813) 870-2700.

Here's a chance to be a big playmaker in the lives of kids.

-- Sherry Robinson

[Times files]