Equipped to learn

The notebooks, pens and pencils and glue sticks that are school supplies might qualify as ordinary and everyday, but they are hardly mundane.

Readers who support community back-to-school programs help homeless and low-income children return to school with confidence.

Those acts of generosity have extraordinary power.

The YWCA School Days Program has watched self-confidence blossom all over Puget Sound. The YWCA of Seattle-King-Snohomish County helps students in grades K-12 throughout King County, including the Eastside, South King County, downtown Seattle and Snohomish County.

Last year, generous Times' readers helped provide school supplies to 1,170 needy children living in YWCA emergency shelters and supportive housing. An inventory of school supplies is on hand all year to help new arrivals.

Barely into July, the requests for supply-laden backpacks are already growing for next fall.

Contributions to the school-supply drive of The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy are divided among three excellent agencies: Hopelink, the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness and the YWCA. They buy supplies in bulk, screen requests for assistance and track the age-appropriate needs of students.

For students wrestling with other challenges in their young lives, the opportunity to arrive for class equipped to learn makes for an unremarkable, unnoticed and glorious first day of school.

Readers are invited to send a donation to: The School Supply Drive of The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy, P.O. Box C-11025, Seattle, WA 98111. For donations via credit/debit card, e-mail pdelaney@seattletimes.com for details.