Backpack Giveaway 2006 is underway…and needs your help!

Gaby’s mother sells tamales to make ends meet.  Several days a week, she approaches businesses and individuals throughout the community, selling a couple here, a dozen there.  At $1.50 each, money is not pouring into the household.  Gaby’s mother is just one of many immigrants who works creatively to support their families.  (Not that it matters to us, but Gaby’s mother is in the United States WITH papers.) 

Gaby has an older sister and brother.  Her father was killed in a car accident a couple years ago, but the social security check does not go very far.  There is rent, food and other bills to pay.  No money for "extras" and a new backpack for school is one of those.

But due to the efforts of the Coastside Catholic Worker and many supporting organizations, businesses and individuals, Gaby and her siblings will start out the new school year with brand new backpacks filled with all the notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, glue, paper and other school supplies that are recommended by the school district for each student according to their grade.  The annual Backpack Giveaway, in its sixth year under the organizing of Magdalene House and the Coastside Catholic Worker, helps ensure that the start of the new school year is a time to be looked forward to, not dreaded.  The highly anticipated event helps to shine a light on school and reinforce the idea of a positive educational experience.  By supplying backpacks filled with school supplies to the children from needy families on the Coast, no one has to do without the basics. 

In past years, from 400 to 600 children from the first grade to seniors in high school have received a backpack with school supplies.  With only a week to go before the day volunteers gather to stuff the packs to prepare for distribution (scheduled for Saturday, August 19 at the Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay, beginning at 9 a.m.), only a handful have been collected.  Yet over a hundred families with more than 300 children have already signed up for the program.

Once the backpacks and school supplies are distributed at the start of school, the Catholic Worker gives extras to other youth programs on the Coast.  Past beneficiaries have included the Sheriff’s Activity Leagues, the Boys and Girls Club, the Migrant Education Program and others.

In the past, those who have supported the efforts of the Catholic Worker by providing backpacks, school supplies, financial support and/or volunteers have included the Coastside Jewish Community, Coastside Lutheran Church, Community United Methodist Church (C.U.M.C.) of Half Moon Bay, Holy Family Episcopal Church of H.M.B., St. Peter Catholic Church in Pacifica, Companions on the Journey Catholic Community of Palo Alto, St. Charles Catholic Church of San Carlos and St. Luke Catholic Church of Foster City, Coastside Mothers Club, Mothers Club of Pacifica, Curves of Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay Starbucks and the JustFaith group from Fremont.

To read about a past year, go to the Coastside Catholic Worker website.  For more information or to arrange to donate, call Mike Niece at Magdalene House (726-6606).  Thanks in advance for your help in nurturing a culture of education among our young people on the Coast.