Organizers of the Rock Back To School campaign are hoping for more donations as the campaign wraps up.
The fifth annual Rock Back to School campaign launched earlier this month, with Free 98.1, Preferred Insurance, the Salvation Army, Real Canadian Superstore, and the Thames Valley Education Foundation collecting donations of school supplies and backpacks for kids heading back to school in September.
Volunteers stuff donated lunch bags, calculators, pens, pencil crayons, paper, and binders inside each of the donated backpacks. Those school supply stuffed bags are then distributed to over 4,000 kids in need within the Thames Valley District School Board and London District Catholic School Board.
"The response this year has been amazing," says Jackie Ellefsen, community and corporate fund development officer for the Thames Valley Education Foundation. "We are lucky to live in such generous communities. But the need increases every year, so we still struggle to meet the demand."
Ellefsen says they still need backpacks and calculators, the two most expensive items that are also the items they are in greatest need of.
Donations for the Rock Back to School campaign can be dropped off until August 31 at the Salvation Army, Preferred Insurance, and Real Canadian Superstores in London, St. Thomas, and Strathroy.
Principals at each of the region’s schools will be in charge of handing out the supply filled backpacks to students on the first day of school.
