Back to School Help for Disadvantaged Children

The past couple of years Le Top employees have supported a program near and dear to our hearts through Volunteers of America, called Operation Backpack. The program collects necessary back-to-school supplies and disburses them to Greater Sacramento, CA area homeless and disadvantaged families, as well as agencies and school districts. I know summer has just started but the new school year is fast approaching and these children are lacking the basics to start school off on the right track. Operation Backpack is accepting filled backpacks or supplies from July 8-22, 2011. If you or a group you are involved in would like to donate or participate see how you do it below (taken from the Volunteers of America website.)

Give Back. Give a Pack.

1. Individuals

• Pick a school supply list.
• Purchase a new backpack filled with school supplies according to the grade level of your choice.
• Securely tag the backpack with the school supply list and bring to one of the participating drop-off locations between July 8 and 22.

2. Groups – Join the 100 Pack!

• The 100 Pack celebrates Volunteers of America’s 100th anniversary of providing human services in Greater Sacramento. By joining today, your group commits to sponsoring its very own Operation Backpack drive, and collecting as many new backpacks and school supplies as possible.
• Introduce your personal network of friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and social groups to Operation Backpack and start today!

Volunteer

• Volunteers are crucial to the success of Operation Backpack. Starting in late-June, and continuing through the first week of August, volunteers are needed to fulfill a variety of roles, including: Runners; Sorters; and Pick-a-Pack Day Event Assistants.
• For more details and to sign up, please visit the Operation Backpack Volunteer page.

Support Kids Now!

• Don’t have time to shop or volunteer, but still want to make a difference? Visit the online donation page to make a contribution today!

For additional information on Operation Backpack, please see the list of supporting pages to the left, or contact them at OperationBackpack@voa-sac.org, or 916.442.3691.

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Teach Your Child About Giving to Charity

I am moving in a few weeks and have been going through my clothing, gadgets, shoes, and more. While researching charities to donate my unneeded items to here in New York, it made me think that I am so fortunate that my mother and father taught me the importance of not just throw away things. Instead proactively go through your home a few times a year and give things to charity and those in need. I decided that I am going to donate to a local AIDS organization for families who have members with AIDS and that struggle.

Charity and the spirit of giving have been elevated to a new level in the past few years, following natural disasters like the earthquake in Japan, the war in Iraq, and terrorist attacks around the globe. Your child doesn’t have to be a Carnegie, a Ford, or a Rockefeller, to become a philanthropist.

Many parents are using the destruction delivered by these catastrophes as an opportunity to help children learn about charity and the importance of reaching out to others in their time of need.

You can make a family donation – big or small – and involve your child by allowing them to pick out the charity, write the check and even prepare the envelope to mail it.  It is important to allow your children to witness turning pain and grief/loss into a time of extending love and compassion to those they don’t even know, whether it be in the United States or around the world. 

Here is how your family can help.

1.    Donate clothes like me!
Periodically go through your closets rooting out clothes you haven’t worn in a while, which can be given to the Salvation Army or Goodwill for distribution to the needy. I always say if you haven’t worn it in 6-9 months…someone more deserving needs those clothes. Encourage your children to do the same. Allow them to select which clothes or toys they wish to donate. The value of this activity is diminished greatly if you go through their closets for them without their presence. For maximum benefit, get your children involved in choosing the appropriate items. Take your children with you when you drop the items off at the charitable destination.

2.    Help neighbors.
Regularly engage in a service-oriented project. Rake the leaves of an elderly couple. Bake cookies for a serviceman or servicewoman. If you have leftovers from when you go out to dinner, give them to a homeless person and teach your children that you just gave them a good meal.

3.    Make birthdays charitable.
Set up birthday parties as a time for giving to others. At your child’s first school-age birthday party, ask guests to bring a gift of a book (new or used) to be donated to a local charity. Talk to your son about the books he has and about children who have no books. Explain that one way to celebrate a birthday would be to give to those who have less. Involve the birthday boy in the decision of whether or not to give the books to a woman’s shelter, a doctor’s office, or some other appropriate organization. When you deliver the books with your son, record it on camera, and revisit that movie (or those pictures) on future birthdays.

4.    Give back to pets.
At regular intervals, buy dog or cat food and take it to the humane society. Allow your children to spend some time with the recipients of the gift.

5.    Deliver nutrition.
Build food baskets around the holidays and give to a needy family suggested by your church or school. Involve your children is selecting canned goods, fruit, and other treats to include. Decorate the gift package and deliver it together, as a family.

6.    Help elders.
Do things for the elderly that they have trouble doing for themselves. Pick up sticks in your neighbor’s yard after a big windstorm. Mow the grass for Grandma. Wash Grandpa’s car. Clean their windows in the spring. Help them plant flowers.

7.    Pitch in.
Get on a regular service schedule at your church or synagogue. Sign up for a time to mow the grass and trim the bushes. Take your turn ushering and allow your child to assist.

By implementing some of these ideas or others like them, you will be teaching your children that charity is not reserved only for emergencies. You will be helping them appreciate that reaching out to others in need is a way of life, rather than a moment in time when a catastrophic disaster occurs.

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Back to School – with all the “Right Stuff!”

Houston…we have a problem.”

Americans are GREAT at solving problems!  Remember the triumphant safe return of our Astronauts?  Right now there is a big problem with one of our most vulnerable groups of citizens – disadvantaged and homeless children.  These children are approaching Back to School, just like millions of children across the United States – but have a problem…a lack of the basic necessities needed to start school off on the right foot. 

A Backpack Filled with all The Right Stuff

Fortunately there is a group of heroes out there ready to help!  Julie, a member of our Inside Sales Team and outstanding mother of five, brought our attention to a program near and dear to her heart. Volunteers of America, a non-profit organization in the Sacramento/Yolo County area, administer a program called Operation Backpack that offers services to local disadvantaged families.   One of the key services at this time of year is supplying backpacks filled with school supplies to give children all the advantages they deserve to start the school year on a positive note.  After hearing about this praiseworthy project I couldn’t help but get involved… I have a passion for kids and a soft spot in my heart for those that have the will to learn, but lack the means to easily navigate the educational process.

Kristin Sporting Her Donated Backpack

I jumped at the opportunity to work with Volunteers of America – and honestly had a blast roaming through the aisles of our local retailer, picking out the perfect Hannah Montana backpack, then filling it with a binder, super cool markers, crayons, pens, pencils, etc.  It was all the fun of school shopping without the stress of going to class! Julie and I filled up several backpacks for the kids, and had a ball doing it.  Julie’s son asked where his backpack was…and he’s 23!  We can’t wait until next year when we do this again…although we shouldn’t wait, since Volunteers of America collects backpacks throughout the entire year. 

Operation Backpack has collected 2,938 backpacks so far this year – double the donations from last year!  Even in a tough economy people see the importance of investing in our children’s future.  If you have a desire to help our country’s children get a head start on a valuable and needed education, please contact Volunteers of America to see how you can assist.  The children will thank you!

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Going Green: Sustainable Garden

One of the great things about the San Francisco Bay Area is that we seem to be one of the hubs for the “green” scene. No matter where you live, I think most of us walk around with the question in the back of our minds: “How can I be a little more green?” No, not Kermit the Frog green, but eco-green.

The City of Hercules is about two exits away from le•top headquarters and is on their own “green” kick. Linda (a friendly voice on the le•top phones) teamed up with the City of Hercules on the Hercules Sustainable Community Garden Project and put le•top into action, helping this eco-friendly community garden build from the ground up.

Tony, our warehouse crew worker, is loading le•top boxes into the community garden van.

With Linda’s initiative, le•top has helped donate approximately 22,000 sq./ft. of cardboard needed for the garden’s bed. The cardboard is a great mulch for the ground as it dampens and deteriorates into the ground creating a great layer for the seeds to sprout. It’s also a wonderful weed preventative.

We are excited to be apart of this eco-friendly garden and can’t wait for its grand opening! I am personally looking forward to many a lunch-time to walk around it.

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Saluting all the Elves of the Season

We know there are many organizations throughout the world that work tirelessly year round, but especially so during the holidays, to bring a sense of hope and good will to those in need. For many years, le•top has worked with one such group in our area. Attorneys For Children is a self-funded group of volunteer attorneys who become very industrious elves from August through January. They hone gift lists for shelters and other organizations that serve the homeless and indigent. They make early morning runs to purchase toys and other gifts, then sort and bag them, and then distribute the gifts late into the night, close to Christmas. They do this to ensure that homeless children have at least one new gift to open during the holiday season, and just as importantly, to let children in shelters (or otherwise in need) know that the community values them and has faith in their futures.

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