Readers fill backpacks with school supplies, the tools of learning

GENEROUS readers power the school supply drive of The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy. It is that simple.

Notes accompanying their donations try to turn the table and thank this editorial-page campaign for helping children in low-income families get ready for school.

Nice try, but we know better. Reader contributions fill backpacks with the pens and pencils, Crayons, notebooks and paper — all the tools of learning. All those grateful students and delighted parents are helped by readers. Their willingness to invest in the education of strangers makes it happen.

Turns out there is not all that much distance between those writing the checks and receiving the benefits.

As removed as they might be from one another, they are bound by a fundamental belief in the importance of education. Readers also hint at their own past economic travails, their struggles raising a family, and their hard memories of doing without as a child.

They want to help, and they do, with great generosity. Thank you all.

Our duty is to use the money fully and responsibly to get school supplies to deserving students. Three excellent agencies ensure it happens: Hopelink, the YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County, and the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness.

They screen applicants, buy supplies in bulk, and recruit volunteers to stuff backpacks with grade-appropriate materials and get them to grateful students and families.

Another summer has flown by, and a new school year looms ahead. The generosity of Times readers will help return low-income students to class equipped to learn, and confident. Our campaign is not over, there is still time to help.