Focus on TUSD - March 2008

Feed the Children
Filled Backpack Donations Surprise, Delight Students
Many families never think about their children's backpacks. They're simply collection points for the books, papers, pens and pencils, and everything else children need to get through their school days.

But for other families, backpacks are a luxury as they struggle to pay for other daily expenses. Many of those families in the Tucson Unified School District gratefully accepted free backpacks on Feb. 27, donated by a national coalition.

TUSD volunteers and staff gathered in front of the District Clothing Bank, 606 S. Plumer Ave., watching a 53-foot, 18-wheeler loaded with supplies drive up. The backpacks inside, earmarked for homeless students, were donated through a partnership between the National Association for Education of Homeless Children and Youth and the Homeless Education Program, an outreach program of Feed the Children.

As a front-end loader carried boxes filled with the 800 backpacks to the sidewalk, some in the crowd were speechless at the unexpected bounty that had come their way. Others readily expressed their gratitude.

"I'm so excited," said Chris Molina, the TUSD Clothing Bank director. "This is outstanding. Our kids will be excited. They'll be elated. They love getting the backpacks anyway, and with all the goodies inside, they'll be even more excited."

The goodies she was talking about, along with the backpacks, added up to about $200 per backpack. Molina unzipped a backpack, peeking in to see the contents. "Oh, a calculator," she exclaimed. "That's good to see. We never have enough calculators, so the kids will be so excited to get these."

She rummaged around some more, finding hygiene items and snacks tucked into zip-locked plastic bags. Some backpacks were sized for smaller children with items suited for their use, and the larger ones were filled with supplies for older students.

Suzy Thomas, a Drake Alternative Middle School teacher, said she and her co-teacher, Karen Stewart, would take 25 backpacks, enough for their entire student body. Thomas could hardly contain her delight. "The kids will flip," she said. "They'll be excited. It's so incredible. We need more of this." She admired the water bottles tucked into an outside pocket of the backpacks, in just the right place for a student on the go to grab.

"We work with a lot of homeless children and when you're living off someone else's couch, you can put your stuff in these," Thomas explained.

Children identified as homeless were earmarked as recipients. This could mean children living in cars, trailers or parks, children whose families moved on the spur of the moment because of disruptions and children in foster families, for example.

Even though the need is great in TUSD to help these children, whose number is estimated at about 1,500 among the more than 58,000 student enrollment, Feed the Children had not donated to this District before. "They called me out of the clear blue with the offer," said Pam Fine, director of the School Community Services. "I said we'd take whatever they had. They sent photos of the backpack contents. They had every kind of school supply you can think of." She called schools right away to arrange the distribution.

Volunteers and staff from receiving schools transported some backpacks and the rest stayed at the Clothing Bank. Molina said, "This really helps out. We never have enough."

She said some backpacks went to Cragin, Mission View, Myers-Ganoung and Richey elementary schools; some went to Roskruge Magnet Middle School and to Safford elementary and middle schools. Others were on the way to the Southwest Family Resource Center and to Catalina Magnet High School.

Student volunteers from Tucson High Magnet High School and from Catalina helped with the project. THMS juniors Nicole Trujillo, Leanne Kingman and Denise Fuentes pitched in. Fuentes said, "It's fantastic that they are getting the backpacks. Their (the children's) eyes will be all big when they get them. They'll be ecstatic."

She pointed to the Feed the Children logo on the truck, saying she liked its slogan: "Feed the Children. It's who we are. It's what we do."

That summed up the reason she was there that sunny afternoon, as well as all the other volunteers who stood beside her. Helping children is who they are and it's what they do.

About Feed the Children

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

Photos in the March issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations, unless otherwise noted.

The deadline to submit material for the April Focus is Friday, April 11. The Focus will be published Monday, April 21. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the online Tip Sheet.