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ESD 123: Backpacks for Kids help get parents involved

On a hot early August afternoon, 700 backpacks were delivered to ESD 123, along with enough school supplies to fill them all.  Within a week, kids in need were walking away ready to start the new school year.  Ask ESD 123’s WA-PIRC site liaisons Margarita Torres and Erika Alvarez about the project, and they will tell you that it was a lot of work, but worth it.  This project aimed to get school supplies to kids in need, while getting important parent involvement information to their families.

Tucked deep inside the ESD 123 building, the Washington State Parent Information and Resource Center (WA-PIRC) office was too small to contain all of the backpacks and school supplies, so the Instructional Resource Center housed the work of filling the backpacks.

The focus of the backpack program was on children at the beginning of their school careers, but included older kids at labor camps where the need was great. The accompanying presentation emphasized the importance of parent involvement throughout a child’s education, and targeted low-income populations, with most of the presentations being given in Spanish.

Margarita and Erika are grateful to Steve Witeck, Director of WA-PIRC, for his support and to Bruce Hawkins and ESD 123 for providing the Instructional Resource Center space to house the backpack assembly line.

Everyone agrees that the hard work was worth seeing kids with their new backpacks, knowing the supplies are going to families who need them, and getting the message about parent involvement to parents who might not otherwise hear it.

               ~Molly Green
                  ESD 123 Desktop Publisher