While we're used to outfitting hikers with backpacks for the trail, at the start of this month, we focused on getting backpacks ready for a new setting: the classroom.
For the last several years, we've worked with Raleigh's NOG run club to provide and pack backpacks for Friends of Wake. This organization makes an incredible impact across Wake County, helping to fill the gap between what the county's public services are able to provide for foster children and the care that they deserve. Along with many other initiatives, including tutoring, grants, volunteering opportunities, and more, the organization runs a Backpacks for Kids program. Many of the kids that the organization works with are unable to get sufficient school supplies through their school and need a helping hand to get prepared for the classroom - an environment that serves as a key safe space for many children growing up in poverty.
After their GOPC co-sponsored Fundraising Run on the 27th, the run club met at the GOPC headquarters in on Beryl Road for a run before staying on for a dinner with GOPC staff (provided by Trophy Pizza!) and a backpack-stuffing event where the group packed bags full of school supplies to donate to Friends of Wake. After contributions of backpacks from our sponsors at Patagonia, The North Face, Cotopaxi, On, and Gregory, we were able to supply and pack 150 of those backpacks to donate!!
We absolutely love this event and are looking forward to running it (no pun intended) again next year!
