Junior Women’s Club Readies Backpacks For Local Families

By Eliza Hallabeck

Crayons, markers, notebooks, and backpacks lined the walls of the Newtown Meeting House’s downstairs as volunteers with the Newtown Junior Women’s Club worked to organize and eventually pack backpacks on Tuesday, August 9.

Christine Grabowski, Kim Didomizio, and Ruth Brassard oversaw the club’s Back-To-School Backpack Program this year, and by Wednesday, August 10, the backpacks were ready to be dropped off with Social Services.

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 88 backpacks will be donated to local families.

The club has estimated that each bag costs roughly $30 to outfit with school supplies, and donations throughout the year help to fund the program. Ms Grabowski said the backpack program is one of the group’s three largest annual efforts that are underwritten through fundraising.

“Our club of 20 women,” Ms Grabowski said on Tuesday afternoon, “will be packing [the backpacks] tonight and delivering them to Social Services tomorrow morning.”

Ms Grabowski also said the Newtown Junior Women’s Club works in conjunction with Social Services to provide the backpack program to the local community. This year Social Services provided the backpacks for the effort.

Each year the club receives a list of students in need from Social Services, but the list does not have names on it; the students are kept anonymous. The list also includes all of the supplies the children will need in order to get through the school year, and the grade they are going into.

Ms Grabowski said if people have further interest in the club, or what it does for the community, more information can be found at www.newtownjuniorwomen.com. Information about donating to the club’s efforts is also available on the website.