Helping Kids Find 'A Way Up' Through Education & A Good Backpack

GUILFORD, CT - Access to a good education, especially with the right tools, is one way to help end the cycle of poverty, some experts agree. Guilford’s Theodora “Teddi” Stanley believes that, too.

She was in the seventh grade when she started her first backpack and school supplies drive at Saint George Roman Catholic Church in Guilford. Her initial idea was to provide kids in need with school supplies. But that mission evolved and the program 'A Way Up' was founded by her and her sister Ella.

Teddi is now a senior in college and Ella is a college sophomore.

Saying she “believes that education is a way up out of poverty and homelessness, necessary to promoting social mobility of the younger generation,” Teddi took her middle school-age book bag drive from her church to the community and further across the state. But it’s always been Saint George parishioners who’ve brought their “generous spirit” to the endeavor.

On hot summer days, pre-pandemic, Teddi and Ella worked to collect, and organize backpacks for kids of all ages. Teddi said that “something as simple as a backpack can be a source of student dignity.”

In 2015, Teddi and A Way Upwere featured in an article where she shared what had been accomplished that year: seven organizations, including Columbus House’s Middlesex Family Shelter and Support Services for Veteran Families programs, received some 200 backpacks to children in need from grades Pre-k through high school. Every bag was fully equipped with age appropriate materials and customized to each student’s individual needs.

She said at the time, it was “especially exciting because I was able to work first-hand with community social workers, gaining a deeper understanding of the valuable work they do in their communities.”

Since A Way Up was created, and in specific the Backpacks for Dignity program, more than $20,000 has been raised for the cause of homelessness, 1,900 backpacks have been distributed, as well as around 9,000 pounds of school supplies.

“It’s my mission to supply as many students as possible with school supplies. In doing this, I hope that I am also inspiring them to pursue an education,” she said.

And getting donations of backpacks and funds was going along well until the coronavirus appeared in the early winter of 2020.

Getting donations since the pandemic hit has been difficult, and more are in need

In-person donations for the backpack program were all but scuttled due to COVID-19, Teddi said, explaining that the decision to avoid in-person drop-offs of backpacks and school supplies is both related to virus transmission mitigation and “to limit the number of individuals who touch the materials we give our students so as to protect our students from COVID-19 as much as possible.”

And the pandemic made not only getting donations more difficult, it created hardships for many families and as a result, she said, “we have more students that will need support.”

So the approach has been to do it all online, which has not proven to have met the ever-increasing need.

It costs around $30 to $50 per student, depending on age, grade and school supply needs, to fill a book bag with the right school tools.

“We would be grateful for any and all support, no matter how small,” Teddi said.

Checks to help support A Way up may be mailed to A Way Up, 1 Park St., Guilford, CT 06437

For more information and or to find answers to questions, email awayup.inc@gmail.com.