Backpacks

School starts next week, as you can tell from the aisles of school supplies at the local stores.  My son is starting preschool this year (yea!) and to him, going to school means you have to have a backpack.  He's spent the last couple of weeks packing and repacking his backpack and practicing wearing it around the house. 
There are kids in Ketchikan who can't afford to buy new backpacks in addition to all the other school supplies they have to purchase.  Dawn Rauwolf, of PATCHWorks, is collecting new or gently used backpacks to give to children in need.  The Ketchikan Public Library is a drop-off site for these, and there is a short donor form that you can fill out so Dawn knows who to thank (if you want to remain anonymous, that's fine too).
This backpack drive is a wonderful idea, and we're very happy to be able to see the donations arriving.  In fact, yesterday someone dropped off two new backpacks - 1 for a boy, 1 for a girl - that were not only brand new, they were stuffed with school supplies!  Brand new pencils, erasers, tissues, calculator, ruler, pencil box, 3-ring binder....what a sweet gift for a child at a time of the year when people don't ordinarily think of donating to others (unlike traditional giving times such as Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Thank you so much to all the people who have dropped off donations so far, and a huge thank you to Dawn and PATCHWorks for coming up with this idea.