Middlebury Resident Helps Oxford Students Provide for Children in Need

A Southbury business will help Oxford High School students put backpacks filled with school supplies into the hands of hundreds of children in need.

All day today -- Friday, March 9 -- the business, gift shop at 41 Oak Tree Rd., Southbury, will donate 15 percent of profits from sales to anyone who shops at the store and mentions the run by the Future Business Leaders of America Group at . Newbury Place is open until 5:30 today.

The FBLA student president at Oxford High, Will Denslow, started the non-profit group Backpack Basics last year as part of his Eagle Scout project. He collected 132 filled backpacks and more than $7,000 worth of school supplies for children in the Naugatuck Valley.

This year, Denslow, now a junior at OHS, has teamed up with his fellow FBLA students and their teacher, Jennie Batista of Middlebury, to make the effort even larger. The goal this year is to collect at least 300 filled backpacks for children in need.

Batista said she’s in contact with the Shelton-based Spooner House homeless shelter, which has identified more than 950 students in need of school supplies in the lower Naugatuck Valley. So far, the Oxford students have collected more than 115 filled backpacks and several monetary donations.

Note: For more information about Backpack Basics, and to learn how to donate, see the group’s webpage here. Backpack Basics is also on Facebook here. And follow the organization on Twitter at @BackpackBasics.