Backpacks for Kids

Three yellow school buses strategically parked around the Northshore School District are potent reminders of a campaign to help students return in the fall ready to learn.

Backpacks for Kids began nine summers ago as a pilot program in two Woodinville elementary schools. Northshore's effort to gather school supplies for needy children immediately went districtwide the next year.

Northshore officials quickly saw the missing link between students returning each September eager to learn but not equipped to learn. Students were arriving for classes without basic school supplies.

Two stalwarts have helped from the beginning, the Woodinville Chamber of Commerce and the Northshore Kiwanis. They anchor the campaign for a district that serves Kenmore, Bothell and Woodinville, in north King County and south Snohomish counties.

Now dozens of local businesses, banks, fire stations, churches and volunteers gather donations and supplies that will be assembled and delivered to school nurses and front-office staff, who have identified families that cannot afford the tools of learning. Working through individual schools, more than 700 backpacks stuffed with grade-appropriate supplies will be distributed later this month.

Details on ways to support Northshore's Backpacks for Kids are available at www.nsd.org.

Readers of this editorial page may also donate to the school-supply drive of The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy.

Contributions are divided among three excellent agencies: Hopelink, the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness and the YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County.

Your gift helps grateful families and their eager students get a good start on a new school year.

Readers are invited to send a donation to: The School Supply Drive, care 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.