Help support Oakland’s aspiring sixth-graders with school supplies
July 5, 2011 •
Help prepare backpacks filled with school supplies for 150 sixth-graders at Oakland’s Frick Middle School this fall by participating in Project Fill A Backpack, sponsored by the OP Staff Assembly.
Frick is located in a tough environment, and 100 percent of the student body is eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches. Despite these challenges, the school community is striving to instill college readiness and a college-going philosophy in its students.
It’s easy to participate in Project Fill a Backpack. Boxes are placed throughout the Franklin building and OP floors at the Kaiser, 20th Street and Office of the Treasurer buildings for collecting a specific list of supplies for each student. Take-away lists of needed items are clipped to each collection box and posted on the OP Staff Assembly website.
“The list of items is very specific because we want each student to receive the same bag and the same contents,” says Blaze Farrar, OP Staff Assembly communications chair. All donated items must be new.
The backpacks, which have already been ordered in a variety of colors, will be printed with the Frick Middle School logo and the words “Future College Student.” Any cash donations will be used to pay for the bags.
Please act by August 1 so that donations can be evaluated and any last-minute appeals made for specific items. Completed school bags will then be delivered to the school in mid-August.
UCOP Cares previously organized a garden-planting project at Frick Middle School. California GEAR UP and MESA in Education Partnerships also worked with Frick to help foster a college-going culture and an innovative math curriculum.
Your help is welcome! The OP Staff Assembly is seeking cheerleaders in each department to build support and encourage donations from all OP work areas. If you would like to get involved, please contact the OP Staff Assembly via email at OPStaffAssembly@ucop.edu or via their web page.
Please note that tax-deductible CASH DONATIONS are very much needed too – so that we can buy the actual drawstring-backpacks themselves (total cost ~ $650), and any items that we’re short on as the August 1 deadline approaches. Your cash contributions are tax deductible – please contact Gemma Rieser or Kenneth Feer if you are able to make a cash contribution to this effort! Thanks!