United Way of the Lowcountry
OPERATION BACKPACK

United Way of the Lowcountry Women United Seeking Support for Operation Backpack to Provide Local Children in Need with School Supplies to Start School.

Children throughout the Lowcountry are enjoying their summer vacation. But it certainly won’t be long until they will be preparing for another school year. Although many children would love for the carefree days of summer to last forever, most would admit there is some excitement in getting ready for a new school year, going school shopping, getting a new backpack and picking out school supplies.

Unfortunately, there are many families here in the Lowcountry who simply can’t afford the extra cost of purchasing backpacks, school supplies, and uniforms. That’s why United Way of the Lowcountry Women United started Operation Backpack, which works to help fill the gaps by providing backpacks full of school supplies and uniform shirts to children in need before each school year. “We want children to walk into school on the first day with the tools they need to succeed regardless of their financial situations,” says Alison Barton, Chair of Women United’s Operation Backpack and United Way of the Lowcountry Board Member. “We all know purchasing school supplies can certainly be costly and there are many families in our community who are struggling just to make ends meet. If we all do our little part to help, we can make a big impact for the children in this community.”

For the past several years, Women United has continued to expand the program to help meet the need in our community. “We want to break any barrier that would prevent a student from succeeding in school so when we learned that many of our students were starting the school year without the supplies they desperately needed, Operation Backpack was born,” says Katie Phifer, Women United Steering Committee Chair. Last school year, the initiative provided more than 1,000 backpacks to students at schools throughout Beaufort and Jasper Counties. This upcoming school year, Operation Backpack is again expanding to help more local students and plans on providing 1,250 backpacks filled with school supplies and uniform shirts. “We are grateful for the generosity of our community including local businesses, neighborhoods, individuals and other non-profit groups who step up to the plate and truly deliver in order to help our children.”

Women United works with school social workers to identify the students who would benefit the most from the program and who are not being served by other agencies. Women United volunteers help pack each of the backpacks with school supplies and two uniform shirts. The backpacks are then delivered to the schools prior to the start of school so the students have what they need on their first day. “Once the collection process is finalized, we organize our volunteers at United Way to help sort all the materials. We set up an assembly line and pack each of the backpacks, school by school,” says Barton. “By working with the schools directly, each backpack is grade appropriate and contains the proper uniform shirt size for the child.”

How can you get involved?
Women United is collecting school supplies and monetary donations from June through August 1st. Drop-off locations will be located throughout Beaufort and Jasper Counties including the United Way of the Lowcountry offices.

United Way of the Lowcountry Offices:
Beaufort – 1277 Ribaut Road
Bluffton – 10 Buckingham Plantation Drive, Suite D
For more drop-off locations, visit www.uwlowcountry.org.

The list of donated items include the following: yellow highlighters, index cards, pocket folders (2 pockets), glue sticks, #2 pencils (12 count), crayons (24 count), Crayola washable markers, composition notebooks (marble), filler paper, ruler (12 inch/clear if possible), zipper-seal quart and gallon bags, box of facial tissue, wet wipes, hand sanitizer (4 oz bottle), rolls of paper towels, colored pencils, expo markers and beach towels (new).

Women United is collecting monetary donations to purchase the actual backpacks, school uniform shirts and some of the school supply items in bulk.
Donations can be made online at www.uwlowcountry.org or by texting BACKPACK2019 to 71777. Checks can be made out to “United Way of the Lowcountry” with Operation Backpack in the memo line and should be mailed to United Way of the Lowcountry, P.O. Box 202, Beaufort, SC 29901.

For more information about Operation Backpack, contact Jaime Dailey-Vergara at the United Way of the Lowcountry at (843) 982-3040 or jdaileyvergara@uwlowcountry.org. More information is available at www.uwlowcountry.org.