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As the new school year gets underway, a number of school supplies are being stuffed into backpacks at Sporting Kansas City by its associates. The backpacks will later be distributed to students The Hope Center KC serves.
"All the associates are going to go through, see what's on the backpacks, stuff it with the items that are on that child's list," Sporting KC Community Impact intern, Brooklynne Wozny said. "Once they get to the end, they'll go through their t-shirt size, put that in the bag as well, with the water bottle."
Each backpack is unique, personalized with a student's name, their interests and a custom supply list.
"We have just like taken it a step further because it's, I feel connected to the kids almost," Sporting KC associate Mia Hollander said on decorating students' backpacks. "I feel like Malachi and Phoenix in front of me, I feel like those are my kids."
It's apart of Sporting Kansas City's Sporting Cares platform, The 'Adopt a Backpack – School Supply Drive' is part of Sporting Kansas City's Sporting Cares platform, in partnership with the Hope Center, where backpacks adopted by Sporting KC will be gifted to students the Hope Center serves.
Hope Center Executive Director Marvin Daniels says this partnership between Sporting KC and Hope Center is one that says and means a lot.
"Number one, it alleviates the pressure of the Hope Center to be able to gather resources for the students in need that we serve and then second of all to be able to have a bridge where you have actually an organization like Sporting KC say, "we care about your students , we care about the kids in your community and we're willing to make an investment in that," Daniels said. "And we're going to do so by equipping them with some of the utilities and utensils and resources they need at least to get a good start to the school year."
64 students from K-12 across 15 school districts will be receiving these backpacks.
"This is apart of our Sporting Cares platform so this all came out of last year, where we were like we really want to come alongside our community," Sporting KC Community Impact Manager, Maigan Bridgette said.
The Hope Center has been a community partner of Sporting KC since last year.
Daniels says with these school supplies, they're able to help fill a need.
"We recognize within the radius that we serve, the median income is $35,000," Daniels said. "And so when you're dealing with families who don't have the necessary resources to be able to provide for their students, to be able to have a good start to school, to have the equipment that they need to be able to have, the resources they need to start school, that becomes for them, a burden."
While the associates pour time in filling up these backpacks for the students, Daniels says this gift is much bigger than a bookbag.
"It's more than just the paper and the pens and the pencils, and all the utensils that are put inside of them,"Daniels said. "It's the value of those items and the cost of those items that is becoming a greater blessing."
This initiative is the second year for Sporting KC's School Supply Drive. Last year, the organization partnered with Guadalupe Centers and adopted a classroom.
On Thursday evening, Sporting KC will deliver the backpacks and surprise students the Hope Center serves. Kids will get a visit from Sporting KC players and the Sporting mascot, Blue.
