Newtown Junior Women’s Club Makes Sure

Backpacks Are At The Ready

By Eliza Hallabeck

With nearly two weeks left before the 2012-13 school year begins on August 28 the Newtown Junior Women’s Club met at the Newtown Meeting House on Thursday, August 16, to complete the club’s annual effort to provide backpacks, stocked with school supplies, for local students in need.

The club’s Back-To-School Backpack Program helps students living in low-income families facing difficulties to finance the return to school each year. This year 91 backpacks will be donated to local families.

The Newtown Junior Women’s Club works closely with Social Services to complete the program and donations are sought from residents at local locations.

This year a display was set up at the Newtown Savings Bank in Sand Hill Plaza, and project Chair Ruth Brassard said donations were being accepted at the bank through the end of this week. Club President Christine Grabowski said the club is always looking for donations, and throughout the school year backpacks and supplies are needed for students.

Newtown Junior Women’s Club members purchase, pack, and deliver backpacks to Newtown Social Services prior to the start of the school year annually. Residents were given the option to “adopt” a backpack or give a monetary donation.

Ms Brassard said this year the club also received a $339 donation from one unnamed source.

By working with Newtown Social Services, all students who receive backpacks remain anonymous.

Thursday evening, as Newtown Junior Women’s Club members gathered to complete the backpacks, supplies were carefully organized, with stacks of composition notebooks, piles of boxes of markers, and a long line of backpacks stacked against a wall. By the end of the evening the backpacks were set to be filled with the necessary supplies for each student.

Further information on the club and making donations is available at www.newtownjuniorwomen.com.