Filling a little backpack could make a big difference to a student.
Collingwood non-profit Backpack Heroes, which started in 2018, is gearing up for its 2022 school supply drive and is looking for a few good sponsors to help support its inaugural gala, which is slated to take place this summer.
“As someone who loved school, and I grew up poor, I knew what it was like to constantly borrow pens and pencils off my friends,” founder Brandi Woolner told CollingwoodToday.ca. “Every student deserves the chance to succeed. Something as simple as not having a pencil to take a note could make or break a test.”
The Collingwood mom started Backpack Heroes in Collingwood and Wasaga Beach after seeing a concerning post on a local mom group on Facebook.
“A girl was asking if anybody had any school supplies for her child. She didn’t have anything,” said Woolner. “You can fill a backpack for $40. I thought, I could spare $40.”
Woolner says she connected with the woman and gave money to buy backpacks and supplies for her two children. She reached out to her own friend network and shared the need she was seeing, and they all pitched in that year to help.
At first, Woolner called the group Bippity Boppity Back to School, but changed the name to Backpack Heroes to better represent the group, which seeks to help both children and adults with back-to-school supplies. The group was incorporated in February 2020, right before COVID-19 hit.
“It grew and grew. Now we have Barrie and Mount Forest chapters, and we’re working on starting a Cambridge chapter,” said Woolner.
In 2021, she estimates, about 400 backpacks were given out in Collingwood through the charity.
The group is run through the Backpack Heroes Facebook page. Woolner accepts requests privately, and then posts a pinned list on the page with the age and gender of people in need. ‘Heroes’ can then choose from the list which family or families they’d like to sponsor.
“It just says the grade, gender and location,” she said.
New this year, with things slowly opening up again, Woolner is planning a gala event to help pay for the program. The event is planned to take place at the Wasaga Beach RecPlex, and she’s looking for sponsors and volunteers to help out.
The gala is tentatively planned to take place July 23, but it will depend on sponsorships. She’s also looking for local businesses willing to donate catering services and silent auction and raffle prizes.
Tickets will cost $30 per person, or $40 for a pair, and will include dinner.
Once costs for the event are paid, 100 per cent of the money raised through the event will go toward backpack supplies.
“We’d like to keep some funding aside for kids doing distance learning so we can buy some Chromebooks,” she said. “If you’re a student, we will help you.”
If you’d like to get involved with Backpack Heroes or would like more information on sponsorship, contact them through their Facebook page here.
