Next weekend brings two opportunities to gather with LGBT friends, celebrate community and help young people.
The 7th annual Backpack in the Park hopes to take party-goers back to their childhoods to help a new generation of young people get a successful start in the new school year.
This year’s theme, “Summer Camp,” gives attendees the chance to relive such childhood camp classics like crafting and s’mores while collecting backpacks and school supplies for Georgia’s less fortunate kids.
This year's Backpack in the Park fundraiser was the “best year yet” and collected 1,826 backpacks for underprivileged school children, organizers announced today. Backpack in the Park was held on July 30 in Piedmont Park.
“This was by far our best year yet for Backpack in the Park,” said Chris Bess, president of For the Kid in All of Us, in a media release.
Donated backpacks increased 28 percent over 2010, the group noted.
“In addition to the backpacks — some 400 more than were donated last year! - we also collected $1,200 in gift cards,” Bess said. “It is so wonderful to see the smile on the kids’ faces when you hand them one of the backpacks. Now they are ready for their first day of school with all the tools they need to be successful! That’s what Backpack in the Park is all about.”
It would be tragic if a future brilliant writer failed to find her voice because she didn’t have a pencil in her first grade language arts class, or if a gifted artist abandoned drawing because he was too embarrassed to borrow crayons from his classmates.
“When you’re sitting in the classroom and you notice that the person next to you has the big three-ring binder with everything they need, and you’re using a binder that’s about to fall apart and you’re using a pencil that’s down to the nub, I think it has a big impact on a student’s self esteem and self confidence,” says Chris Bess, president of For the Kid in All of Us.
For the sixth summer, For the Kid is helping underprivileged children throughout metro Atlanta start the school year with the confidence that comes from, say, a Lady GaGa Trapper Keeper. On July 30, the non-profit hosts “Backpack in the Park,” which last year collected almost 1,500 backpacks filled with school supplies.