As a new school year gets underway, SMART-TD Local 1258 (Elgin, Illinois) earned some extra credit by ensuring students in a local district were well-equipped to head back to class, thanks to its first-ever School Backpack Drive.
Former Local 1258 President Brian Benes spearheaded the initiative after years of participation in Toys for Tots during the holiday season, a very popular charity among the membership.
“We like to give back, because we understand that in today’s times, we are fortunate for the jobs that we have,” said Brother Benes. “We run through a lot of communities that are less fortunate, and we do like to try to give back on a philanthropic level. So we wanted to do something on the opposite end of Christmas, which is perfect for a backpack drive.”
For its debut drive, the local raised around $700 to fill 24 backpacks with school supplies. They provided four packs tailored to each grade level, from kindergarten through fifth grade, for the Hanover Park School District in Illinois.
“A lot of people will donate, but they’ll donate a backpack or a box of pencils, or some note cards or some supplies,” he explained. “We went to their website, and we downloaded all of the school lists.”
All 24 backpacks were claimed within one day and as Brother Benes found out afterwards, that little bit of extra effort paid off.
“I explained to [the gentleman who took the backpacks from me] that we went online and [the supplies] are according to your class list that you guys printed, and he was blown away that we took the time to do that. So it made us feel really good that we did it and did it the right way.”
“We literally did our homework,” Brother Benes said, laughing.
Even though this was only the first year for the Backpack Drive, Brother Benes is happy with the 24 backpacks and hopes to grow that number next year.
“I would love for our members that didn’t participate this year to see [this] and say ‘Wow, I want to get in on this next year and be a part of it.’”
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