By Kaity Coisman
Contributing Writer
GREEN BAY – School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) and Hispanics for School Choice (HFSC) hosted a backpack drive on Sunday, June 25 at the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church Parish Festival, to distribute backpacks and school supplies to members of the Green Bay community.
SCW and HFSC were also collecting supplies for future backpack drives across the state.
The backpack giveaway is the first of four events in Wisconsin.
There will be other giveaways this summer in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Madison.
Director of Hispanics for School Choice Nataly Andrade coordinated the drives for all four cities.
“Our goal is to give out approximately 500 backpacks and school supplies (in all four cities) to low-income families, but it is really open to the public, anyone who attends the event that comes with an adult and is k-12 can receive a backpack,” said Andrade.
The backpack drive started as a small event nine years ago in Milwaukee and this will be the fourth year that the event has been planned for all four cities.
Each of the students that came received, “a backpack with a couple school supplies, colored pencils; pencils; erasers; inside of it.”
Andrade continued to explain that “it’s all donation-based. We actually had United Health Care donate the biggest donation so we could run this backpack drive, and it is completely free for our families, all they have to do is show up and complete a small questionnaire with their information and they would receive a backpack.”
With the drive being donation-based it was on a first come, first served basis for anyone looking to receive a backpack and school supplies.
HFSC knows that “money is always tight for low-income families and the recent inflation rates only amplify things,” but they are driven to “empower parents by advocating for high-quality options for education.”
You can join SCW and HFSC at any of the following backpack drives in the other cities, or if you are interested in donating or need more information, visit https://schoolchoicewi.org/2023-backpack-event/.