We wish it weren’t so, but Franklin County and the North Quabbin region are among the poorest in the state. And yet, we are also among the wealthiest — if you count generosity of spirit and compassion among our riches. And we do.
We see our generosity in many ways all year long, but this time of year, when families prepare to send their children back to school, we see it in the area’s backpack drives.
The United Way of Franklin County and Valuing Our Children in the North Quabbin area hope to distribute hundreds of backpacks stuffed with school supplies, so more children can start a fresh year with confidence.
Sue Samoriski, the founder and co-executive director of the Mary Lyon Foundation, was one of several representatives from area social service agencies attending the recent Franklin County United Way’s annual backpack drive gathering thrown by the agency’s Women’s Way branch. Samoriski recounted a story that explained the personal impact that fuels these drives.
An elementary school boy from Heath who was being raised with his brother by a single mother, had gotten backpacks and school supplies to start the school year. It was a simple gift, but it made them “fit in with everybody else,” the boy told her in a thank-you note.
So far, Women’s Way members have stuffed roughly 70 backpacks and collected $400 in cash. The United Way is continuing toward its 400-backpack goal through Aug. 24. Backpacks will be collected at all the branches of both the Greenfield Savings Bank and the Greenfield Cooperative Bank, during business hours.
Charity Day, the leader of the Women’s Way, notes that not every family has the ability to send children back to school with new pencils, notebooks and backpacks, those little things that can boost a child’s confidence in a world where peer pressure can weigh so heavily, and a new academic year offers new but fragile beginnings. Some families “have to make a choice between their utility bill or purchasing school supplies, and that’s not a choice anybody should have to make,” says Day.
The backpack drive also allows Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County to distribute 40 to 50 packs to students they work with every year.
“It really starts the tone off for the children’s entire school year,” the agency’s Executive Director Jennifer Webster points out. “It’s really vital to the educational success of youth in this community.”
The Athol-Orange area has been collecting backpacks for 17 years, with many local businesses, like D’Ambrosio Eye Care and Athol Credit Union, and nonprofits like the Salvation Army, collaborating with Valuing Our Children.
The credit union has become the hub for collection and distribution of the packs. Jude Seppa of D’Ambrosio Eye Care said this is the fifth year the company has donated supplies for the drive.
About four years ago Valuing Our Children partnered with the credit union for the event and has used the community center — packed with pencil cases, folders and notebooks — each year since.
“They offered us this space, which was amazing and they purchase a lot of notebooks, binders and pocket folders,” said Shirley Mitchell of Valuing Our Children
The drive is a “total community event,” said Mitchell.
Today, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., children from the nine towns of the North Quabbin will be able to receive a new backpack and various school supplies on a first-come, first-served basis. More than 500 backpacks were given away at last year’s drive.
And yet, there always seems to be a need. Contact Valuing Our Children at 978-249-3702 or United Way of Franklin County at 413-772-2168 to help provide some generosity, support and confidence that might just make the difference for some young student in your community this year.