Military Families Getting Ready For School With Help From Phillies
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Military families are spending their day at Citizen's Bank Park with the Phillies organization.
Their children are getting all the school supplies they'll need to start the school year off right.
It's been a summer of giving for the Phillies and on this day the generous organization is celebrating military families with this back to school event at Citizen's Bank Park.
"We are taking care of military families, from rucksacks to backpacks, providing school supplies for about 100 military families," said USO of Pennsylvania and South Jersey President, Joe Brooks.
There's no shortage of school supplies for the kids, everything from pens and pencils to crayons, notebooks and backpacks. All the items they'll need for the start of a successful school year.
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"As a father of four, children this time of the year is very expensive, keep that discretionary spending in their pockets," said Brooks.
"We did a school supply event on July 4, really fun event," said Phillies Director of Publicity, John Brazer.
More than 800 items were donated by Phillies fans, culminating in a fun day of batting practice, rock climbing and hot dog launching for the kids.
"I've been part of this organization for a long, long time and you're not going to find an organization that gives back to the community as much as the Phillies do," said former Phillies player Mickey Morandini
"I got to work on my pitching for when I play baseball," said one participant.
"It's great that the community does this kind of stuff, it feels good to be appreciated," said Aaron Miller of the Air Force.
Heartfelt thank yous from the men and women of our armed forces.
The United Service Organization started this program two years ago giving away just a handful of backpacks.
Now, it has grown tremendously and this year alone it will be helping supply 2,000 military families throughout the region with school supplies.