Sorority Donates Backpacks to School Children in Need

VALHALLA, NY — The children in the care of the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) Child Welfare Program received a very special show of support this fall as WIHD partnered with the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority to help the children get the 2016-2017 school year off to a positive start.

Through its One Million Backpacks initiative, a worldwide campaign to promote the learning process through donations of school supplies to kids who need them, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Pi Iota Omega chapter in White Plains provided backpacks for the students in the program, which WIHD staff and other partners then generously filled with donations of pencils, notebooks, crayons and other necessities to promote a successful school year, according to organizers.

WIHD board member Traci F. Gardner, MD is Vice President and Program Chair of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Pi Iota Omega chapter in White Plains. Dr. Gardner is the agency pediatrician for two programs at The Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry.

The first is the TRAC program, which keeps minors who are awaiting immigration status decisions. The second is the SILP program which provides housing and living skills for older youth who are homeless or transitioning from Foster Care. She is also the District Medical Officer for the Valhalla Union Free School District in Valhalla.

“In my work as a pediatrician and as a WIHD Board Member, I have the privilege of getting to know many children at different and varied levels of abilities — and am constantly reminded of the incredible things all children are capable of,” says Dr. Gardner. “My Pi Iota Omega sisters and I are honored to be a part of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s important commitment to bridging the achievement gap through One Million Backpacks.”

Dr. Gardner, a 1990 graduate of Mount Holyoke, is also an Associate Clinical Professor at New York Medical College and a practicing Pediatrician in White Plains.

Her next service project for WIHD will be a coat drive for children in the foster care program. To donate new coats (no used coats, please), contact Danielle S. Weisberg, LCSW, Director, Child Welfare Services & Children’s Advocacy Center at WIHD, at 914-493-8197.

Photo credit: Courtesy.