Carrying Hope: 100+ Backpacks Donated to Kids in Need Across Porter County
In the month of July and August, The Salvation Army of Porter County partnered with Walmart to collect school supplies during their “Stuff the Bus” Event. This event created awareness to their community to help collect supplies to children in need. During this time, social worker, Bailey Martinson, was surveying how many kids needed supplies during this school year. Over 200 kids signed up for school supplies with a bigger need growing in Portage and their surrounding school districts. Over 2,000 individual items were donated by Walmart shoppers that were stuffed into backpacks from Kindergarten to High School.
A few months prior to Stuff the Bus, a conversation was brought up between the staff, “How are we going to give these backpacks out?” questioned Bailey as she spoke to Aux. Captain Jim Prichard, corps officer of Porter County, and marketing manager, Carli Murkve. “We have to think of something that would be easy and maybe something exciting, it’s too late to do a fair,” Carli expressed concern, “What if we find another event to partner with?” The idea came to Captain Jim as they all pondered, “We could partner with National Night Out, it’s in August and before school, maybe Lisa from the Portage Township Trustee will partner with us?” The idea sparked and Bailey pursued this idea of bringing awareness to National Night Out in South Haven; Lisa was thrilled about the idea as it brought more community out to celebrate its first responders.
When the day of National Night Out came, the staff prepared for long lines and checking individuals to hand out backpacks for those that signed up. The Salvation Army of Porter County handed out 129 book bags to Porter County students as well as 75 bookbags to Gary students. Each backpack was filled with supplies as well as a list of all the supplies inside the bags; they also offered supplies that they had excess amount or supplies for older students on a side table for parents and guardians to shop. With this roaring success for their backpack giveaway, Lisa from the Portage Township Trustee came up to Carli and Captain Jim, “This has been the biggest this event has ever been, I have never seen so many kids, these past few years have been so quiet, so will you be doing this again next year?” Captain Jim and Carli confirmed that The Salvation Army would love to continue this partnership and create an opportunity to not only pick up their backpacks but also visit community partners/non-profits and visit our first responders.
The Salvation Army of Porter County has been grateful to this success and will be working hard to make it easier and more accessible to individuals that sign up for backpacks. They would also like to thank the Portage Township Trustee for partnering with them to make this event possible. Thank you to all our Walmart Shoppers in Valparaiso and Portage as well as their managers for approving this event. Without your support, this event would not have been made possible.