Volunteers Stuff Thousands Of Backpacks For Children In Need Of School Supplies
By Hadas Kuznits
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Over 24,000 Philadelphia school children will be receiving a backpack full of school supplies, thanks to a backpack-a-thon event that took place Thursday morning at Lincoln Financial Field.
Over 250 volunteers spent the morning stuffing backpacks at Lincoln Financial Field.
Jim Cawley, president and CEO of the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey says they packed notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers and more:
"We have corporate partners and volunteers from around the greater Philadelphia area who are stuffing 24,000 backpacks."
The United Way partnered with the organization Cradles to Crayons for this event.
Executive director Michal Smith says more school children than ever are living below the poverty line:
"If you're only living on $11,000 a year, you're providing for 2 children and it costs $660 for the average family to get a child ready for school. Where does that money come from?"
She says providing school supplies not only helps a family financially, it also boosts confidence and helps alleviate a bit of that back-to-school stress:
"The excitement of a new pencil case, the excitement of a new backpack! But not only that, if you're a mom who's living in poverty and you know that your child now has a brand new backpack filled with supplies, you have no idea how important that is."