The Charles River School Parents Association recently collected school supplies for the Boston-based nonprofit Backpacks for New Beginnings (BP4NB). Backpacks for New Beginnings was founded in 2009 by two brothers, Jackson and Tristan Kelley, and has donated 10,000 backpacks and counting to kids in need in the greater Boston area.
Parents Kate Dow and Kelly Taylor, Community Service Co-Chairs, led the organization of school supply drop-offs from CRS families and our community was very generous. Volunteers and students spent an afternoon efficiently packing 96 backpacks for BP4NB.
BP4NB is “dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged children including those in foster care, group homes, and homeless shelters.” Many of these children will begin the school year without the most basic necessity- a backpack with school supplies. The school year may be underway, but the need for backpacks continues to be on an upward trend.
“This was really meaningful service learning for our students, and we are grateful for our partnership with BP4NB,” said Head of School, Gabe Burnstein. “This program allowed for experiential learning so our students can understand different experiences in our community in a developmentally appropriate way. All our students understand the need for backpacks. They also understand that at the start of a new school year, students take great pride in the school supplies inside those backpacks. That is a shared experience for kids everywhere. It is also meaningful that our Otters did the work themselves to not simply donate the materials but to organize them with great care.”
The backpacks were packed with items to help kids feel empowered, confident, and prepared for school. By the numbers, the PA collected and filled the backpacks with:
- 196 notebooks
- 170 folders
- 149 crayons boxes
- 109 markers packs
- 74 pencil packs
- 45 pen packs
- 30 colored pencils packs
- 15 pencil sharpeners
- 8 glue sticks
- 3 reams lined paper