Eastern Iowa organizations partner to provide school supplies for children in need

When students go back to school next month, many will have new backpacks and school supplies they might not otherwise have been able to afford.

Several organizations in Eastern Iowa, including Hawkeye Area Community Action Program or HACAP, the Cedar Rapids Salvation Army and Families Helping Families of Iowa, are collecting donations and preparing backpacks. All three groups serve children from kindergarten to 12th grade. They have different requirements for who qualifies for backpacks and school supplies.

HACAP's Homeless Children's Trust on Monday began collecting school supplies. It has set up donation bins in various Johnson County stores and will take donations through Aug. 10. The supplies and money donated to the trust will go toward filling new backpacks for Johnson County students who have been declared homeless within three months of starting school.

Mary Larew, coordinator for the Homeless Children's Trust, said the organization helped 131 kids last year, and that number is about average. She said what most people don't realize is that 25 percent of the students the trust helps are of high school age, so it needs more supplies such as graphing calculators.

However, Larew said no matter what is donated, it all goes to good use. If the organization gets extras of any item, they will go to shelters to be saved for any new arriving children.

'I just love to see the looks on the faces of children when they pick up the backpacks,” Larew said. 'They go back to school with all brand-new supplies and on par with all the other children in their class.”

Families Helping Families of Iowa has a similar program called Schoolapalooza, but it benefits children who have been adopted, lived in foster care or placed out of their homes. Molly Gansen, president of the organization, said few services are available to help these types of kids, and many times they don't take all the right items when leaving their homes.

The organization reached out to area businesses to place collection bins in their offices. Gansen said Families Helping Families didn't set a specific goal for Schoolapalooza but is 'just hoping to be able to serve any child that does apply” for the program.

The Cedar Rapids Salvation Army puts on The Backpack Project each year to benefit the first 2,000 Linn County students who show up to the event. Students and their parents or guardians with proof of school registration and a Linn County ID can pick up backpacks from 8 to 10 a.m. Aug. 1

The Salvation Army works with with other charities and businesses to collect and purchase common school supplies to fill backpacks for students of all ages.

Lia Pontarelli, director of development and communications for the Salvation Army, said 'school supplies shouldn't be a reason” for children to get bullied in school, and hopes to prevent that with The Backpack Project.

Gansen said Families Helping Families sees a similar problem because there is an expectation for kids on the first day of school to have everything be new.

Giving out school supplies is 'a great feeling,” Pontarelli said. 'Especially when you're able to help kids with something like this; kids these days can be so cruel for so many reasons.”