For many families, buying school supplies is just one more thing to prepare their children for the year.
For other parents, it is yet another expense they can ill afford.
The Salvation Army's annual Backpack & School Supply Drive provides children in need with a brand new backpack filled with everything they need to start the school year off right.
Throughout the summer, The Salvation Army BC Division, along with corporate donors such as Starbucks, Staples and Fitness Town, fill backpacks with required school supplies such as pens, pencils, paper, glue sticks, binders, geometry set and more.
"By us helping families in need with free backpacks, it helps free some money so that the parents can purchase other school necessities such as clothing," said Major Ken Ritson, divisional secretary for public relations and development for The Salvation Army BC Division. "In the last three years, we have seen the demand increase for our backpack program almost twofold."
This year's goal of 5,000 is more than double what the program provided last year, with around 100 backpacks going to Richmond students, said Ritson.
The school backpacks program, which serves mostly elementary school children, began about five years ago with around 600 backpacks.
Ritson said initially the program started by supplying kids who took part in the Salvation Army summer camps. The campers would go home after a week-long camp with new backpacks filled with school supplies.
Soon, the nonprofit organization realized the need was far greater than simply supplying campers with the backpacks.
"It just grew from there and we soon increased it to 2,100, and now we are up to 5,000," added Ritson.
If you want to know if your child qualifies for a backpack, call the Salvation Army Vancouver Family Services at 604-872-7676.
For more information about the program or how you can help, call the Salvation Army Richmond office at 604-277-2424.
mhopkins@richmond-news.com
