Grand Circle associates help equip 125 local children with the school tools for success
Grand Circle associate and Community of Friends co-founder Kathy Wilder displays backpacks collected during this year’s drive.
Going back to school can be an exciting time for children—but a time of anxiety for economically disadvantaged families who can’t afford to purchase school supplies for their kids.
However, thanks to donations from Grand Circle associates, more than 100 children in Greater Boston are going back to the classroom this fall outfitted with a backpack full of supplies. “We’re helping them start the school year off with what they need and not feel different from any other kid,” says Kathy Wilder, a Grand Circle associate since 1999 and facilitator of the sixth annual Backpack & School Supplies Drive, sponsored by Community of Friends, a volunteer-based charitable organization in Marblehead, Massachusetts, that Kathy co-founded with her husband, John.
“We believe that charity begins at the home and that we have an obligation to help those among us who—through circumstances beyond their control—find themselves in a difficult place,” reads Community of Friends’ mission statement.
Following Grand Circle’s philanthropic philosophy of giving back to the communities where we live and work, Kathy brought the backpack drive to Grand Circle in 2006, when associates donated 40 backpacks. Company giving has increased more than threefold since then, with associates exceeding our goal of purchasing and filling 125 backpacks in 2010. “It really caught on, and people love it!” says Kathy.
More than 100 Grand Circle associates donated to this year’s Backpack & School Supplies Drive.
Volunteers receive a school supply list, and purchase and fill a backpack with grade-appropriate materials, including pencils, notebooks, highlighters, three-ring binders, and scissors. Participants also receive the name, grade, gender, and favorite color of a specific student. “That’s what people really love about it,” says Kathy. “I think they feel connected to the child.”
Many associates enjoy involving their families in the drive as well. “My daughter, a third-grader, wanted to help out but didn’t have any money, so I added $32.50 to her chore duty,” says Kathleen Lambert, a 15-year Grand Circle associate, who filled a backpack with some assistance from her daughter, Elizabeth. Kathleen, whose own mother instilled in her the value of community service, brought Elizabeth to Staples with the Community of Friends shopping list, and her daughter was shocked to see that a toothbrush and toothpaste were on the list. “That really struck a chord with her,” says Kathleen. “She was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Somebody doesn’t even have enough money to brush their teeth?’”
A parent of seven children—four of whom are still in school—Judy Swentik, with Grand Circle since 2005, also involved her family in the drive. “When my older children were young, I didn’t have a lot of money, so we kind of scraped together to get what they need for school,” says Judy. “Now that I’m in a different position and have young children that I can afford to get supplies for, I just want to return the favor—to pay it forward.”
While Judy shopped for her own kids, two of her older children helped the four little ones to run around the store gathering supplies to donate. “There’s probably nothing greater that we could do than to further someone’s education,” says Judy. “If a child doesn’t have the basics for school, then he’s not going to succeed.”
Grand Circle associate Kate Cooper checks off a child’s back-to-school list as she fills a backpack with supplies.
In addition to donating backpacks, Grand Circle associates volunteered their time, shopping for school supplies with colleagues’ monetary donations, organizing materials and dividing them by grade, and serving as floor captains to help rally volunteers. Associates also donated pastries and other sweet treats for a bake sale at Grand Circle’s Boston headquarters. For a bake sale with a game-show twist, associates who bought a dessert also got a chance to play a question from, “Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader?”
“Some people didn’t want to not be smarter than a fifth-grader, so they would throw in another dollar and take another question,” says Kathy. “It was super fun.”
Making the annual backpack drive fun and easy to participate in is key to its success.
“This drive is a huge undertaking,” says Kathleen, “but they make it so easy for us!”
Grand Circle associates who donate to the backpack drive are helping children through METCO, Inc. and KIPP Academy Lynn in Lynn, Marblehead, Salem, Boston, and other North Shore communities in Massachusetts.
Learn more about the work of Grand Circle Foundation.