South Salem Volunteers Assemble Backpacks For Kids In Need

SALEM, N.Y. -- A Backpack Brigade of volunteers recently helped the educational charity Front of the Class assemble 1,000 backpacks of school supplies intended for in-need kids across upstate New York, as well as Westchester County and Fairfield County, Conn.

Backpack Brigades provide school supplies to youths in need.
Photo Credit: *Wikimedia Commons*

Robert Mikulak

06/18/2015 3:30 p.m.

The Backpack Brigade was made up of about 25 volunteers from Danbury, Conn., Katonah and Lewisboro, including kids from John Jay Youth Lacrosse, the John Jay Futbol Club and their families.

The backpacks of school supplies were assembled for Front of the Class’ Meet the Need Backpack Program, which will provide backpacks to low-income kids in the Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Rome, Camden, Adirondack, Poughkeepsie, Bedford and Danbury school districts.

Front of the Class plans to deliver the backpacks to the school districts for the start of the next school year. The program has been partially paid for through grants from corporations and their foundations, including grants from M&T Bank, Staples and the Utica National Group.

Front of the Class also has received grants from a number of community and family foundations and donations from the public. Many of the donations and grants were restricted for specific school districts.

“We’re going to continue to fund-raise for this program through the end of the summer in the hope that we can double the number of backpacks we deliver," said Front of the Class President Bill McCormick in a press release. "Unfortunately, even if we could deliver 2,000 backpacks, the need in the target communities far exceeds what we can deliver.”

Front of the Class is accepting monetary donations by mail at: Front of the Class, PO Box 224, South Salem, NY 10590 or by clicking here.

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