With schools set to reopen in just a few weeks, it’s officially crunch time for Stephen’s Backpacks Society (SBS) and its 2020 back-to-school campaign.
As usual, the Airdrie-based charity has been busy this summer putting together thousands of backpacks and teacher’s kits, according to Executive Director Nancy McPhee, who is also mother of Stephen, the charity's president and namesake. The backpacks will be distributed to Rocky View Schools (RVS) students and staff members throughout Airdrie and surrounding communities in September.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, McPhee said this year’s campaign has been different.
“We’re away at the races here,” she said. “We’re looking forward to a really great year. We had to cancel three fundraisers, so that kind of hurt us a bit, but you keep plugging away, keep being creative and when there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Established in 2006 when Stephen was just six years old, SBS is a local charity that provides backpacks stuffed with age- and gender-appropriate essentials for families and children in need. In the past 14 years, the charity has distributed more than 64,000 backpacks, according to its Facebook page.
McPhee said this year presented the charity a challenge it has never faced before. Because of the pandemic, she said, upwards of 500 volunteers who work with the organization were unable to lend a hand assembling the backpacks. To help minimize risks, access to SBS’ warehouse has been limited to just the McPhees and the facility manager.
“Our warehouse manager has done an excellent job sanitizing everything, but we knew we couldn’t bring volunteers in, just because of the amount of touching required for all the different boxes and items,” McPhee said.
Even though the McPhees are putting the backpacks and teacher’s kits together on their own, she added the charity still aims to distribute 3,000 backpacks this fall.
“We started really early this year,” she said. “We’ve been working hard, and it’s only three people putting it all together, but it’s going to happen. We’ve been in here all week and it’s looking really nice.”
In addition to typical back-to-school supplies, this year’s backpacks will include a tote bag “full to the brim” with hygiene items like hand sanitizer, Lysol wipes, shampoo and soaps, McPhee said. She said another homegrown charity – Soap For Hope YYC – partnered with SBS on the initiative.
The teacher's kits include a letter from Stephen, she added, thanking the teachers for their hard work and dedication.
“How hard that must be – to be a frontline worker, to go into that classroom every day, to organize and come up with rules of how to keep everyone safe,” McPhee said. “I just want to send out a huge thank you, because to me, they’re the heroes.
Obtaining supplies has been a challenge this year, McPhee said, considering many of the items for the backpacks come from international locations. To mitigate this, she said SBS is working with its local corporate partners, including Walmart, Staples and Superstore in Airdrie to help source materials.
“It’s been a real grind because you can’t get everything from one location – you have to move around and go to different places,” she said. “It’s a lot more legwork this year, but it’s worth it. Every step we take gets us closer to helping one more kid.”
McPhee added the charity's focus continues to be fostering learning and providing children with the tools they need.
"That’s been our mandate for 15 years, and it will carry on forever," she said. "As far as Stephen is concerned, as long as kids need our help, he wants to be there.”
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
