Did you know that there are more than 166,000 Colorado children living in poverty? I didn’t know either and to be honest I don’t have a solid reference to compare the number of little ones in that statistic to anything I’ve experienced, but as soon as I walked into A Precious Child to help volunteer with their Fill A Backpack program, I had a better understanding as to the impact of those numbers and what it looks like to help the families that are a part of that staggering statistic.
A Precious Child is a phenomenal organization in Broomfield that has been working with Colorado communities for over 10 years to help make ends meet for underprivileged families. Greystone volunteered with the organization in December 2017 and we were excited to help them again when they needed volunteers to put together backpacks full of school supplies for the upcoming school year. This time, Greystone team members spent half a day at A Precious Child’s headquarters and assembled 900 backpacks with other volunteers to help make a dent in the organization’s goal of giving 17,000 backpacks to kids going back to school this month.
After we unpacked boxes of new backpacks, we went through an assembly line of school supplies and filled each backpack with everything kids need to be successful on their first day of school. Even though it’s been a few years since I went school shopping for college, I remember what it was like to want to fit in with my classmates in middle and high school like it was yesterday. As I loaded up a pink backpack, I couldn’t help but imagine what it’s like to be unable to choose my own pencils and color-coordinated folders to show my friends. The children we were helping don’t get to pick out their own supplies because they can’t afford them in the first place. I saw thousands of backpacks and did my best to imagine what each of these families go through to make ends meet and it was humbling to put myself in their shoes for a day.
One of my favorite parts of our time was helping the agency partners that came by to pick up the filled backpacks for distribution. We helped load their cars to the brim with hundreds and hundreds of backpacks. Experiencing the full circle of this organization’s efforts with my colleagues and seeing our contribution to the cause be sent out for delivery immediately after we helped was really special.
Our Procurement Manager, Zach, shared, “I was really impressed with A Precious Child and what an organized operation they have to help out our communities. In a few short hours, our team of Greystone volunteers were able to help prepare close to 1,000 brand new backpacks full of school supplies. It’s was unbelievable to see how much was donated, whether it was donating the supplies, or money for the supplies, and then to see how many volunteers showed up to prepare everything. It was a very powerful experience.”
We’re so thankful for this organization that sees a need and works incredibly hard to meet it year over year. Their team has shared that none of these efforts would be possible without the help of volunteers to help make it happen, so I want to challenge you to think about getting involved too!
If you would like to get connected with A Precious Child and give back to your community, visit https://apreciouschild.org/ for more information.
