North Penn staff and volunteers gathered at JL Freed Auto Repair Shop in Hatfield Aug. 18 for the North Penn School District Educational Foundation’s annual Build-a-Bag assembly day.
Since 2018, the Build-a-Bag school supply drive has helped alleviate the financial burden that school supplies can bring to families each year. This year, the foundation accepted donations from 17 local businesses across the district from mid-June through Aug. 11. An online registry via Target was also made where donors bought items that were shipped directly to the district. In August, staff and volunteers gather at a selected location to stuff the backpacks full of supplies and to give to guidance counselors who discreetly distribute them to students in need across the district.
“It's a great way for the community to get involved and help out students in need,” Marion Hoffman Fraley, President of North Penn Educational Foundation, said. “We're supportive of education for everybody and getting people off to the right start with the right supplies.”
This year, volunteers were made up of the district’s administrative staff, some of whom have volunteered in previous years while others came as first-time volunteers.
“It's important for teachers to be a part of the community that they teach,” said Sean Devlin, President of North Penn Education Association, “We need to not just be in our classrooms teaching, but also out in the community.”
Ted Knauss has been volunteering for the Build-a-Bag assembly day since it began in 2018.
“North Penn School District is unbelievable with all the opportunities they have for young people,” Knauss said. “I’ve been around for long enough to see it grow into almost like a village. It takes a village to make a young person grow and [North Penn School District has] done such great things for young people. Each year, it just gets better and better and better.”
Each school across the North Penn School District had an assigned number of bags that were estimated to be needed. Extra bags are saved for students who may need them later in the school year. Staff and volunteers were able to fill more than 200 backpacks due to the record amount of donated items this year.
“It's interesting because you really don't get to see the impact,” North Penn School District Superintendent Todd Bauer said. “That's one of the beauties of the event. In a very nondescript way, students who are in need receive a backpack that they pick up before school starts, and nobody knows that this is a family or a student who needed a backpack donated.”
In total, 200 backpacks will be discretely distributed to students across 18 North Penn schools. To learn more about the North Penn Education Foundation, click here.
