Friday’s drive will yield a distribution of 16,000 backpacks to Delaware children.
Tunes from AC/DC, Lady Gaga and other hits rang through Wilmington’s Chase Center on the Riverfront Friday morning as 230 volunteers stuffed backpacks with essential school supplies for children in need.
“This is the season for backpacks for kids,” said Michal Smith, executive director of Cradles to Crayons, a group that works to fight childhood clothing insecurity directly in Chicagoland, Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Smith pointed out that 40% of U.S. households struggle to pay for the basic household necessities.
“So for them, the fact that it costs about $800 to get a kid ready for school, if you’re going to account for electronics, and if you don’t count the electronics, it’s still about $450,” she said. “It’s a lot of money per kid.”
Friday’s event is the largest backpack distribution in Delaware – and they all had some pizzazz, some with dinosaurs, some in bright colors, some with honeycomb patterns and other designs – and that’s something Smith thinks is important to bring some life to a child’s school materials rather than giving away cookie-cutter black bags.
The packers were mainly corporate volunteers, as the event’s presenting sponsor is Discover.
“Discover works really hard to ensure brighter futures for everyone, and that starts in our classrooms with our students to ensure that they have the supplies that they need to have a successful school year,” said Nora Reilly, a volunteer who’s the community affairs specialist at Discover Financial Services.
The Delaware drive is part of a larger effort to serve more than 72,000 children in the Tri-State area with new backpacks and school supplies ahead of the new school year.
Additionally, Cradles to Crayons will be providing clothing and hygiene essentials to help students feel ready to learn from head to toe.
“People know about food insecurity, they know about housing insecurity, but they never think about clothing insecurity,” Smith said. “Imagine if you don’t have clothes to put on when you get up in the morning, or the clothes that you’ve got may not be quite appropriate, or they’re hand-me-downs. You feel good when you have good clothing and when you have a good backpack.”
She said the organization’s mantra is “quality equals dignity,” and having good clothes, a nice backpack and plenty of school supplies gives the youth dignity.
Friday’s drive filled 16,000 backpacks to be distributed to Delaware’s children.
“To have our volunteers see what Cradles to Crayons does every single day out in the community, it’s a real pleasure for us to be able to help them do that,” Reilly said. “It gets our employees out in the community, take a day away from their desks and spend time to see what our partners do, so it’s a real gift to be able to do this.”
The clothing Cradles to Crayons provide includes socks, underwear, PJs, shirts and more, and the backpack is stuffed with all the essential school supplies like notebooks, pencils, pens and more.
“Our focus is to make sure kids where perhaps the household income is not stretching as far as it needs to, basically kids living below the poverty level in the region, we make sure that they have a brand new backpack,” Smith said.
The organization’s beneficiaries are typically connected already with a human service agency, Smith said, so those agencies order the backpacks on behalf of the families they serve and then distribute directly to the children.
“Cradles to Crayons realizes that sadly poverty hasn’t gone away and with inflation frankly, the lack of the Child Tax Credit now, there are more kids than ever living in poverty and needing the essentials that we provide,” Smith said. “We want to do more.”
This is the third year they have had a drive in Delaware.
For Eagles fans itching to go to The Linc this year as the NFL season approaches, Cradles to Crayons’ next drive is at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Thursday, Aug. 22 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Interested parties or companies that are looking for corporate volunteer opportunities can register for that event here by Thursday, Aug.15.
“The work they do is incredible, and it’s critical for our region’s students,” Reilly said, “and this is a real pleasure for us to participate in and a real great opportunity for us to give back.”
Here are some other backpack/school supply giveaways:
Seaford
Seaford High School is having a resource fair Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 pm. In addition to supplies, there will be free resource tables, free health screenings, free food, bounce houses, live music and more.
The organizer’s suggest that attendees pre-register here.
School Supply Bazaar
The One Step At A Time Foundation, New Castle PAL and J.P. Morgan Chase are hosting the event that will have bookbags, activities and food.
The fair is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10, inside the parking lot of the Garfield Park PAL.
United Way of Delaware
The United Way of Delaware is hosting two giveaways, one from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10 at the Dover Library.
The other is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17 at the Wilmington Public Library.
The organization is hoping to distribute 1,200 bookbags for 1,200 Delaware students.
Colonial School District
Colonial’s William Penn High School will have a shoe giveaway 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10.
It’s the third-annual sneaker giveaway with district partner Kool Kolored Kid Generation, and the district plans to distribute hundreds of pairs of sneakers.
The entire event lasts from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and includes vendors, pep rallies, live music, cheerleaders, games, giveaways and more.
Delaware State Police
The Delaware State Police are taking donations to any Troop or Delaware State Police Federal Credit Union locations, which will have a box for supplies to be dropped off through Friday, Aug. 23.
They will be distributed at the start of the school year.
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a B.A. in journalism and a B.A. in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running CNN’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before joining Delaware LIVE News.
