A neighborhood teenager whose neighborhood service mission supplies backpacks to a number of nonprofit teams that work with kids and households is midway to her purpose of gathering 400 gently used backpacks after enlisting the Solana Seaside College District (SBSD) as a associate in this system, in keeping with a SBSD information launch.
Kalia Roper, who simply graduated from St. James Academy, has organized the Backpack Giveback the previous two years. To solicit donations for the trouble, she designed assortment packing containers and promotional flyers that she positioned in all seven SBSD faculties, and teamed up with the Solana Seaside Library, Staples, Geppetto’s, and the Lomas Santa Fe Nation Membership to function assortment factors, as properly.
SBSD college students donated about 200 of their backpacks in the course of the last week of faculty. The drive continues by way of Aug. 14 on the different neighborhood websites, the place Kalia says any used backpack with a working zipper will be dropped off.
“We’re so happy to have the ability to help Kalia’s mission and provide our college students a chance to contribute to such a worthwhile mission that advantages kids in our neighborhood, and past,” SBSD Superintendent Jodee Brentlinger mentioned within the information launch. “Kalia is an inspiring younger chief, and we stay up for partnering together with her sooner or later.”
Final yr, Kalia labored with the San Dieguito Union Excessive College District on the drive and acquired greater than 300 donated backpacks.
“At first, I assumed it was going to be fairly small,” Kalia mentioned concerning the preliminary drive within the information launch. “I assumed I used to be going to offer the backpacks to households we all know which might be in want.”
Kalia began interested by the mission final yr when she was on crutches for a knee damage and have become depending on her backpack to maintain all of the issues she wanted together with her —however her fingers free. She additionally turned conscious that not each household can afford a backpack.
“I noticed that we now have so many backpacks, and a few individuals don’t have any,” Kalia mentioned. “I assumed in the event you might donate one, you’d actually make somebody’s day.”
The 14-year-old works with a number of charitable teams that want backpacks for the work they do: Solana Seaside Backpacks for Youngsters, a neighborhood nonprofit that gives public college kids experiencing meals insecurity with backpacks full of non-perishable meals; a Ukrainian refugee outreach effort that gives sources to those that have been displaced by the struggle in Ukraine; the Therapeutic Childcare Middle at Father Joe’s Villages, which goals to handle the distinctive educational, psychological, and social challenges confronted by kids who’re homeless; the Emilio Nares Basis, which assists low-income and underserved households caring for a kid with most cancers or one other life-threatening illness; and Birthline of San Diego, which supplies help and sources to pregnant girls and households with younger kids.
Kalia, who will attend The Bishop’s College this fall, additionally raises cash to buy new backpacks for her associate organizations although GoFundMe campaigns, and thru proceeds from gross sales of a guide she wrote in collaboration with graphic designer Sandro Alberti, referred to as “Beautify Your Very Personal Backpack: Ideas and Tips,” which is offered on Amazon.
To take part in this system, go to www.backpackgiveback.com for extra data.
