864 Backpacks Packed With School Supplies Donated To Students

OSWEGO, IL — The school year is officially in full swing, and more than 860 students started the year off strong after receiving backpack and school supply donations from the local Start Strong Backpack Program.

Taking over from St. Luke’s Church in Montgomery, which used to host a back-to-school clinic, Start Strong started as a collaboration between Community Cares and the Kiwanis Club. The pandemic, coupled with a change in leadership at the church, left a gap that needed to be filled, Community Cares founder Robyn Vickers told Patch.

Hosting it as a drive-thru due to the pandemic, the backpack donation program is in its second year. Last year, some 400 backpacks stuffed with supplies were donated to kids whose parents registered in advance.

Both groups organizing the event are based in Oswego, so the majority of donations went to students in Oswego School District 308, but the program isn’t limited only to Oswego residents. Kids from Aurora, Yorkville and Plano have also participated.

This year, Vickers said the group planned to give out a similar number of backpacks. Two days before distribution on Aug. 6, with backpacks already packed with school supplies, District 308 sent out a reminder email about both the backpack event, and the Kendall County Community Food Pantry pick-up, taking place at the same time. In six hours, Vickers said they were inundated with an additional 500 requests.

Vickers said she panicked at first, thinking she messed up the sign-up, but then opened a waitlist in place of the registration and put out “an urgent plea” for donations.

From there, what happened was “amazing,” Vickers said. Donations through PayPal and Venmo poured in, as well as Amazon and Target orders sent to Vickers’ house.

Organizers were able to fill another 500 backpacks — bringing the total to 864 — with supplies to donate to kids.

“Ultimately, because of the generosity of the community, we were able to give everyone the exact same thing, minus a few kids who didn’t get backpacks,” Vickers said.

The Start Strong committee originally planned to give students as much as they could but didn’t expect to be able to give them the same items as the first 400 kids. Vickers said it was heartening to watch how the community came together to provide kids with the supplies they needed to start the school year, which in Oswego began Aug. 18.

“It’s really incredible,” she said. “It shows that there’s a lot more need in the community than a lot of people recognize. And that’s what a lot of our volunteers said as they were helping us pack the backpacks. They had no idea there were so many people that needed help.”

Vickers, who is elected to the Kendall County Board and also serves on the Kendall County Board of Health, started Community Cares as a Facebook group to help families after schools first closed for in-person learning at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. In about a week, she said, the page drew in 2,600 members.

Community Cares continues to evolve, and Vickers said they’re in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity organization.

Vickers said the group has been able to fill needs in many departments. During the pandemic, Vickers created routes for volunteers to deliver food weekly to 10-20 houses. They donated 30,000 meals to families, she said.

“It’s incredibly heartwarming,” she said. “I think the volunteers were getting just as much out of it as the families that we were helping. … There’d be kids in the windows waving hi, notes on the doors saying thank you. It was good for everybody.”

Last winter, they donated new winter coats to people in need who signed up for them. At the end of the school year, members prepared care packages "knowing there were some kids whose home life may not be great." After getting wishlists, the group fundraised and bought items kids wanted, Vickers said.

The group is planning a barbecue fundraiser at Traughber Junior High, 570 Colchester Drive, Oct. 25 to raise money for a Christmas project. Vickers said they’re still finalizing times for the event, where people will be able to pre-order a meal and pick it up drive-thru style.

More information about upcoming Community Cares events can be found here.