Past Backpack Drives
Here are some looks into past Annual Backpack Drives!
Summer 2021
For the First Backpack Drive, a goal of 500 backpacks was set for the Summer. With a small team of determined high schoolers and twenty three amazing people who came over and helped pack 452 backpacks, 547 backpacks were packed surpassing the goal. The backpacks were then donated to Davis Street, Schools in the Newark Unified School District, Fremont Unified School District, and Hayward Unified School District. Special thanks to Arise Church, Pathway Community Church, and Haven Christian Community Church for supporting our cause. We would also like to give big thanks to Milk & Honey for being our drop off location! Thanks to our local community, our first ever Backpack Drive was a success!
Summer 2022
For our 2nd Annual Backpack Drive, Connecting For Education was able to donate 896 backpacks, exceeding our 500 backpack goal by almost 400! We were able to donate the backpacks to the Alameda County Office of Education and Davis Street, who were then able to get the backpacks to low income families in the cities of: Fremont, Union City, Newark, Hayward, Castro Valley, San Leandro, Ashland, and Cherryland. We were also able to donate remaining backpacks to local elementary schools. Special thanks to Arise Church, Assumption Parish, Christ The King Lutheran Church, Faith Fellowship San Leandro, Haven Christian Community Church, Faith Fellowship San Leandro, Haven Christian Community Church, Tri City Chinese Baptist Church, and Unity Church of San Leandro for making this summer’s drive a success. Additionally, we want to give a big shout out and thanks to Milk & Honey and CAFFE:iN for generously serving as our backpack drop-off locations and sponsoring our boba this year! We couldn’t have done it without these local churches and boba shops.
Summer 2023
Our 3rd Annual Backpack Drive had a smaller goal of 300 backpacks, and we were able to surpass that goal by almost 100, with a total of 394 backpacks! These backpacks were donated to a multitude of local elementary schools in the area, including schools located in San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Newark, Fremont, Hayward, and Union City. Backpacks were also personally delivered through the Fremont Family Resource Center’s Grab-and-Go Event! We would like to thank the Formosan United Methodist Church, the Taiwanese American Federation of Northern California, and the Northern American Taiwanese Women’s Association for so generously sponsoring and making our drive possible this year. We would also like to thank many members of FUMC for helping our small team pack the backpacks together. Special thanks to Milk & Honey for again, helping us by being our backpack drop off location. We couldn’t have done this without our community’s help!