The office doorbell rang, and as I turned the corner into the waiting room, my face brightened and a big smile followed. Standing on the other side were our friends Valerie and Lenny Longo, along with Joan and Mark Hildebrandt from Manatee Sunrise Kiwanis.
Today was backpack delivery day!
If you’ve ever purchased back-to-school supplies, you know how quickly the cost adds up. Multiply that by two or three children, then add lunchboxes, uniforms, new shoes and all of the other expenses that seem to arrive at once, and back-to-school season can put a real strain on a family’s budget.
There is also a lot happening beyond the shopping list. Families are adjusting sleep schedules, figuring out transportation, preparing for new teachers and classrooms, completing school forms, and helping children work through the excitement or anxiety that can come with a new school year.
For families already juggling tight budgets and other challenges, it can be an incredibly stressful time.
That is where good community partners can make a very real difference.
For at least 15 years, Manatee Sunrise Kiwanis has been filling backpacks with school supplies and delivering them to local organizations serving children and families. The club typically prepares around 100 backpacks each year. This year, Parenting Matters and Palm View in Palmetto were among the recipients.
And these weren’t empty backpacks.
Each one arrived filled with the things children need to walk into the classroom ready to learn: paper, folders, pencils, crayons, erasers and more.
The backpack project is just one example of Manatee Sunrise Kiwanis’ long history of service. For more than 50 years, members have supported the community through service projects, fundraisers and scholarships. They also provide food-filled backpacks for children over extended school holidays, helping make sure families have a little extra support when children are home from school.
For Valerie, that commitment to service is especially personal. Joan and Mark are her parents, and they have been involved with Kiwanis since before she was born. Their example is a big part of why she remains so passionate about serving her community today.
And the backpacks weren’t the only school supplies making their way through our doors this summer.
A few weeks before school started, Manatee County Public Works reached out with a simple question: Could they hold a back-to-school supply drive to benefit Parenting Matters families?
The answer was an enthusiastic yes.
Their team went to work and ultimately delivered two loads of school supplies, including backpacks, five-subject notebooks, composition notebooks, paper, pens, markers and plenty of other classroom essentials.
Those donations gave our Parenting Educators another resource they could put directly into the hands of families who needed it.
It might seem like a backpack or a stack of notebooks is a small thing. For a parent staring at a long school-supply list and wondering how to make the household budget stretch far enough, it can feel anything but small.
Reducing parental stress is an important part of the work we do at Parenting Matters. Stress affects how all of us respond to the people around us, and parents are no different. When some of the pressure is lifted, parents have more space to focus on their children, establish routines, respond calmly to challenges and help their families adjust to a new school year.
Community partners like Manatee Sunrise Kiwanis and Manatee County Public Works help create that breathing room.
A backpack filled with supplies cannot solve every challenge a family is facing. But it can take one worry off a parent’s list. It can help a child arrive at school prepared. And it can remind a family that there are people in their community who want to see them succeed.
