Volunteers hand out 2,171 school backpacks
Published: August 21, 2005
Angela James can send her children back to school with the supplies and backpacks they need, thanks to the Lansing City Rescue Mission Ministries.
Volunteers passed out 2,171 backpacks Saturday, exceeding their goal.
“I’ve got five kids, so this helps me $200 worth,” the Lansing woman said. “They were just going to have to wait until I got the money, which would have been a long time from now.”
James’ son, 5-year-old Israel Temple, is a first-grader at Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy. After Israel got his blue backpack, he raced outside, strapped it on his shoulders and, with a big grin, walked along Michigan Avenue with his mom.
It was the fifth year for the outreach program. Backpacks and supplies were given to parents who needed only proof that they have custody of their children and don’t exceed income requirements.
The distribution followed a month of donations from residents and community organizations.
“The other day a lady dropped off four used backpacks, and then she said, ‘I’m in charge of an organization’ and she wrote us a $1,000 check to buy supplies,” said James Ellsworth, the mission’s volunteers director.
Volunteers began stuffing the backpacks with school supplies three weeks ago as more bags kept arriving.
“This last week was bizarre. The churches who were saving for this brought them in, and even today we brought some in,” Ellsworth said. “We couldn’t do this without the work of the volunteers.”
More than 40 volunteers worked in the basement, jamming the backpacks full of notebooks, folders, paper, colored pencils, pens and rulers.
“We first got here at 8 a.m. or 8:30 a.m., and first we carried the bags upstairs,” said volunteer Galen Anderson of Lansing, who decided to help so he “can win souls and do the work of the Lord.”
Barbara Love of Lansing received a backpack for her 14-year-old son Jamal Harden, an eighth-grader at Dwight Rich Middle School.
“I’m not ashamed,” Love said. “When somebody is going to give me something, I’ll go get it.”
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