Getting a jump on the next school year already! Medium-may take a day of shopping, putting together and could be moderately pricey. I participated in this last summer. I wanted to take advantage of Flashback Friday and use Operation Backpack as Project #12. I was doing some budgeting today. This prompted me to think one could start budgeting for their participation in Operation Backpack now. Also, the recent confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education made me want to write about Operation Backpack today. Operation Backpack gives a person an opportunity to purchase a backpack and fill it with school supplies for a small child, middle school aged child, or teen living in the shelter system. I want to throw out the same idea from the last blog entry-creating a Hope Box for Operation Refugee Child. Even with budgeting, if you think this project is out of your realm, possibilities are doing this with a friend(s), see if your office wants to take a backpack(s) on, or if you're a business owner & could create a drop box with the supply list. The new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos does not care about public education, public schools. She values, "school choice," private schools, charter schools, voucher systems. She nor her children have ever attended public schools. Do you honestly think she would support any funding for the supplies that go to children living in the shelter system who will in turn go to public schools? Despite Trump's rhetoric of funding his own campaign and scrutinizing Clinton saying she was being paid for or bought, DeVos contributed millions of dollars to the Republican Party, to the senators that voted her in. She values how much money you have and who to funnel it to. That is not what the education system is about. It's about what you know. Not how much cash you have in the bank. Nothing can be more valuable than your brain power. The public school system needs to be paramount for this so everyone can have equal chance. And through Operation Backpack we can give kids the supplies for when they get there. And through Operation Backpack you are directly reminding them that people care about them. The arches of these children's minds you're helping to prepare for school, you will make them glimmer even more. Operation Backpack's website: https://www.voa-gny.org/operation-backpack Did you participate in Operation Backpack? How did you feel about the process? Did you gather supplies via a team of people? Did you take a picture of your backpack? Write to me and send me photos! [email protected]