Scholarly Donations From The Newtown Junior Women’s Club

By Eliza Hallabeck

A recent donation and a recent program by the Newtown Junior Women’s Club follow along the theme of going back to school.

Volunteers and members of the Newtown Junior Women’s Club were busy on Tuesday, August 11, dividing supplies into backpacks for the club’s annual Back-To-School Backpack Program.

This year 87 bags will be put together by the group to be donated to local students with low-income families that are having difficulty financing the start of their school year.

Marya Gaiser, who oversees the program for the Newtown Junior Women’s Club, said normally the bags most needed are for children in the lower grades.

“This year the majority was for high school aged kids,” she said.

Last year the program packed 73 backpacks.

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. This way, Ms Gaiser said, they know what type of bag to stuff for the students.

Ms Gaiser said each bag costs roughly $30 to pack, and will be paid for by public donations, which can be made by visiting The Newtown Savings Back in Sand Hill Plaza and looking for the display set up for this purpose.

Ms Gaiser 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.

The club also recently donated more than $475 worth of books to Newtown elementary school libraries.

 Proceeds came from the club’s Scholastic Book Fair held back in March of this year, which is run in conjunction with the Discovery Science Workshops

Each elementary school library received a variety of age appropriate books in hard and soft cover.