Beaver Dam Kids Get New Backpacks With Supplies

By BOBBIE GREEN

The Progress

Beaver Dam Elementary School students were recipients of new backpacks filled with school supplies on Thursday, afternoon, August 5. The Rotary Club of Mesquite helped distribute them to the kids to get them ready for school which began on Monday.

The Backpacks are a yearly gift from the PAPPAS Kids Foundation to all Title One Schools in the State of Arizona, including Beaver Dam Elementary.

The students also had the opportunity to visit their assigned classrooms, meet their new teacher, and pick out their own color backpack.

Penny Graneki has been teaching for 32 years, the last three at Beaver Dam. She said, “This Pappas Kids Foundation donation is fabulous. It saves us teachers money; through the years I have had to buy lot of this stuff for the kids out of my own pocket.”

The students took their responsibility of choosing which color they wanted very seriously. They were eager to see what was inside.

School principal Jeremy Clarke said. “We are thrilled with this donation. The backpacks go a long way to improve the lives of our students.”

Students at Beaver Dam High School also received backpacks from the foundation. Those were distributed on Monday at the first day of school assembly. The Mesquite Rotary Club was present then as well to help distribute them.

The Pappas Kids Foundation was established in 2005 by Thomas J Pappas to assist with the educational needs of low income and at-risk youth and their families.

Foundation Executive Director Dana Sandovale said that she understands well the plight of low-income and underpriveleged kids.

“I am an adoptee myself and I had a tough time belonging and fitting in,” Sandovale said. “I know how it feels. These backpacks help the low-income kids be like everyone else. For some that may be homeless it is their only place to store their possessions.”

The headquarters of the foundation is in Chandler, Arizona, where a large warehouse stores the backpacks and other donations that are distributed each year.

Sandovale said that there are many volunteers that help in the foundation’s work. Among these volunteers are members of the U.S. Army. The Army sends new recruits to Chandler each year to help stuff the backpacks. They do about five hundred per day.

Sandovale normally delivers all the backpacks to every Title I school in the State. Due to a personal family matter this year, however, she was unable to make some of the deliveries.

But one of the teachers stepped in to fill the gap this year. Mr. Steve Feick, who is the BDHS Athletic Director, P.E. Teacher, and Softball coach organized a long trip to Chandler, in the Phoenix area, to pick up this year’s backpacks for the kids.

“Mr. Feick wanted the kids to have their backpacks for the first day of school,” said Littlefield School District Business Manager Kevin Boyer. “He took up the task of getting a van and driving to Chandle,, picking up the backpack and delivering them to the schools, all in a 24-hour period.”