Parents and kids lined up in Redmond’s Sam Johnson Park Saturday morning to do some back to school shopping of sorts.
It was the annual Backpack Drive organized by Cole Graves, “Thirty minutes we gave out over 130 backpacks.”
It was the third year Graves helped spearhead the free school supply giveaway.
Sophia Velasquez, a seventh grader at Obsidian Middle School, was in line to pick up some books to fill her pack, “I was like oh sweet! My mom doesn’t have to pay for stuff this year.”
Along with backpacks, volunteers handed out close to 500 spiral notebooks, and lots of pens and pencils.
“I’m overwhelmed, I can’t lie, it went very quick, but it’s overwhelming to see the response from the community and how much we were able to help,” said Graves.
▶️ School supply price hikes burden families; local efforts in place to help
The cost of school supplies hasn’t escaped the rise in inflation, simple math simple that’s not lost on the kids who came out Saturday.
“Personally I think that the prices should go down, a lot, like twenty dollars for a backpack,” said Velasquez.
Organizers were shocked at how fast the supplies went, and say that it speaks to the need in the community.
“We got down to our last eight backpacks and they still went faster than hot cakes,” said Graves, who along with the other volunteers, plans to hold the drive and give away again next year.
