It's that exciting time of the year where all the kids who are going back to school need school supplies. For the past several years, St. Mary's has partnered with FOCUS to provide completed backpacks to be given to children in need in our local area.
This year, we are again partnered with Mason Crest Elementary, which is a Title I School in Annandale.
Regardless of whether the students will be attending in person or virtually, they will need these basic supplies to do their assignments.
In prior years, we were given a list and empty backpacks to fill and return to St Mary’s. However, because of the pandemic, FOCUS has arranged with a company to provide these backpacks and send them directly to the school. This will eliminate the many hands touching and potentially contaminating the brand new school supplies.
Our goal is 72 completed backpacks. We need to raise $1,800 to meet this goal.
If you are interested in contributing, there are many methods:
- Mail a check to the church, payable to St Mary, with "FOCUS Backpacks" written on the memo line.
- Make a contribution on REALM and indicate that it is a FOCUS backpack donation.
- Donate through PayPal, and indicate that it is a FOCUS backpack donation.
- If you attend services at church, put the donation in the collection plate, payable to St. Mary's, with "FOCUS Backpacks" written on the memo line.
If we receive more than the needed $1,800, we will forward those funds to FOCUS to use for more backpacks. FOCUS is one of the best-run charities in the country, and uses all donations for worthy causes with minimal overhead.
Thank you for supporting this project! Please direct questions to Fr. David or Ellen R.
— Ellen R.
