Despite the challenges of this year, our community partners once again pulled together and we were able to serve over 3,200 students and parents through this single program! As so many organizations are doing these days, we had to be nimble and creative in our approach to those challenges but thanks to our team, our volunteers and to the families who participated, we were able to hold the event safely and we are so grateful for that.

In addition to the backpacks and school supplies given to more than 2,200 students, and our Parent Resource bags to 1,000 parents and guardians, we were able to distribute 4,800 free home COVID testing kits, over 3,500 bottles of hand sanitizer and 2,000 face masks to people in our community (see below). With the help of 28 of our community partners, our outreach extended beyond this single event and that indeed makes this a success! We are also happy that 23 adults and youth also received their first COVID-19 vaccination at our event.

It takes a lot of caring, helping hands to host this event every year and over 100 volunteers of all ages gave of their time and their talent this year. A special thanks to WCNC-TV, Rock Hill Elks, JM Cope Construction, Rock Hill High Basketball Team and Duke Energy Nuclear Education that brought out teams to stuff bags for over 3,000 parents and students! We appreciate each and every volunteer more than you will ever know!