As many children start heading back to school, UJA-Federation of New York in Long Island is helping to make sure that kids in need have the right supplies for a successful year. More than 200 volunteers, many of them young students, gathered on August 18th to fill over 2,500 backpacks with age-appropriate school supplies for children from needy families across Long Island.
“There were so many supplies that a table even broke,” said one enthusiastic young volunteer. Supplies for Success Give Back With a Backpack, a Long Island–wide school supply drive, is a project of UJA-Federation of New York’s Connections program.
A yearlong effort to collect supplies and cash donations culminated in this three-day volunteer event at which backpacks were stuffed with school supplies and then distributed through several UJA-Federation beneficiary agencies, including F•E•G•S Health and Human Services System, Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center, and Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center.
Many Long Island families, including children as young as 8, came to stuff backpacks. They were joined by other participants, including New York State Assembly members Charles Lavine and Michelle Schimel.
The project was chaired by Mindy Richenstein, Ellen Grossman, and Karen Avrick. “With Supplies for Success, impoverished families don’t have to choose between food and notebooks,” says Richenstein, a founder of the program. “Our many volunteers and supporters have made it possible for disadvantaged children to start school without embarrassment — but rather with excitement and hope, like their classmates, knowing they have the tools for a successful school year.”
Each backpack stuffed is for a specific child in need. With backpacks filled with more than $100,000 in school supplies, UJA-Federation of New York helps ensure that many children, ranging from kindergarten through high school, are better prepared for the new school year.