Kids love buying new pens, pencils, notebooks, binders, book bags and other cool supplies that make a new school year fun, but the prospect may not be as thrilling for a homeless child.
There is hope, thanks to Operation Backpack. The annual campaign of Volunteers of America-Greater New York delivered a record-breaking 18,400 brand-new knapsacks filled with grade-specific supplies to children in more than 150 shelters across the city last year.
The book bags give children the supplies they need to do their work, and allow them to go to school with more hope and confidence, looking and feeling more like their housed classmates and less like children in need, said the program’s founder.
“The average cost of a filled backpack is $81, an expense few families in homeless shelters can afford,” said Rachel Weinstein.
“Receiving a filled backpack relieves parents of a financial burden and provides a sense of normalcy to the otherwise chaotic lives of their children.”
You and your family can seize a golden opportunity to instill community service in your children while defraying costs for families in need by dropping off new backpacks and supplies at select Duane Reades and Walgreens stores, from July 13 to Aug. 7.
“You can make the difference between a child being excited to go to school and not wanting to go at all,” Weinstein said.
Make it a family project with dividends, added Operation Backpack spokeswoman Paige Davis, host of TLC’s “Trading Spaces” and OWN’s “Home Made Simple.”
“You go to the store, select the perfect backpack, fill it with the supplies on the list V.O.A. provides, and you know that a child will open it,” she said. “A child who rarely gets anything new, that’s not a hand-me-down.”
A humble backpack can amount to a badge of honor for underprivileged children and help them start the school year prepared and confident in the knowledge that their education is important and that someone believes in them.
It can be also be a fun and fulfilling summer activity for your whole family, the rewards of which will remain in a class of their own for years to come.
Visit www.opera
