Smiles for Eager Students Ready for School at UCM

Thanks to generous community support and dozens of volunteers, more than 850 Mount Vernon area students from low-income families received new backpacks and grade-appropriate school supplies this past week at United Community Ministries (UCM) in Alexandria.

Pictured helping students select their new backpacks are West Potomac High School teen volunteers (from left) Julia George, junior, and her friend Revathi Mohan, senior. “UCM is a fun place to volunteer with your friends,” say Mohan. “What I most enjoyed about volunteering this week was seeing the many smiles on the children’s faces as we helped them choose their favorite color backpack. Especially the kids in younger grades were so excited, that most of them immediately put on their backpack to wear it home!” Read the press release at the UCM Newsroom.

To assist low-income families who are struggling, United Community Ministries’ annual summer Back to School campaign collects new backpacks and monetary donations for the school supplies to fill them. This year, more than 850 students in Kindergarten through 12th grade will get to choose a new backpack at UCM, filled with school supplies for their grade level. This year, students were also invited to select a new book to take home, thanks to funding provided by a grant from Devotion to Children.

“The response from our community has been overwhelmingly generous this year,” says Susan Johnson, campaign coordinator. “We appreciate the many groups, businesses, and faith communities that organized Back to School collection drives for our UCM kids. And we couldn’t do what we do without the generous commitment of time by our dedicated lead team of Back to School volunteers and all the teen volunteers.”

UCM’s program relies completely on the generosity of the local community to ensure that all kids can have the same chances for success as their more fortunate classmates. “We all know the value of a good education, and we know that children need to be ready to have success in school. A big part of that is having the right supplies,” says Christine Lucas, UCM’s Director of Development and Communications. “But for families who are struggling to make ends meet, a new backpack and school supplies for each child can be expensive, prohibitively so for many families.”

Organizations hosting Back to School collection drives for UCM included: Aldersgate United Methodist Church (Vacation Bible School and Women’s Group), Antioch Baptist Church (Vacation Bible School), Calvary Presbyterian Church, Good Shepherd Catholic Church (including Vacation Bible School), Heritage Presbyterian Church, Inova Mount Vernon Hospital, Kol Ami Jewish Congregation, Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church, Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Nativity Lutheran Church, Party World (Woodbridge), Plymouth Haven Baptist Church, St. James Episcopal Church, Virginia’s Finest Auto Club, and Vornado/ Charles E. Smith, and West Potomac High School Dance Team.

United Community Ministries (UCM) mobilizes the power of community to equip, educate, and empower people to measurably improve their lives. For more than 45 years, UCM has provided a vital connection between people in need and the people committed to helping them thrive. Services include:

• Immediate Help. For families and individuals in crisis, UCM provides food, financial aid, and counseling.
• Education and Employment. Services such as job training and coaching, full-day early care and learning, ESL and citizenship classes, and parental education help people achieve stability.
• Community Engagement. UCM’s neighborhood centers, with after-school programs and leadership training, engage youth and families in broader social networks for success.

In Fiscal Year 2015, thanks to generous community support, UCM provided life-changing assistance in the Alexandria portion of Fairfax County to 10,200 individuals in 4,000 families. Learn how you can help at www.ucmagency.org.