Friends,
Take 2 minutes of your time and join me on this path down memory lane. In our first year providing backpacks for children in need, we busted through our goal with 192 backpacks. Then, last year, you raised the bar and donated 240 backpacks! Now, for 2023, let's set our goal for vesting 300 young souls with backpacks to begin their academic year feeling confident. The Need Being prepared for school contributes to a child’s ability to fully embrace their education. Missing school because you don’t have a backpack or even a pair of shoes is the reality for many children experiencing homelessness and poverty in America. They are forced to skip school, unable to participate in sports and playground activities, and face health risks because of inadequate shoes, food, or school supplies. The students and staff of the St. Luke Sunday School kindly request your help, on behalf of the struggling students and their families in our region, to help those young people be prepared for school every day. How Can You Help? Please consider a donation to the FOCUS (Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve) Back to School Backpack Program. We hope to assist students in the School District of Philadelphia and the Chester Charter Scholars Academy by providing them with new backpacks filled with school supplies. A donation of $25 will cover the cost of 1 backpack filled with supplies, while $600 will provide backpacks for a classroom of 24 students. Last year, your generosity enabled us to provide 240 needy children with new backpacks and school supplies. Let’s try for 300 in 2023! Click on this link to go to our fundraising web page to donate via credit card and help us reach our goal of providing backpacks for needy children. Or, you may donate by: check made out to “FOCUS North America”, with “2023 Backpack Program” written on the memo line, or cash, either of which may be given to Sophia Milinkovic or Noel Kelly after Liturgy, or dropped off or mailed to Vida in the church office. Donations will be accepted until August 15, 2023. For further information, please contact Jane Kelly or Sophia Milinkovic at stlukesundayschool@gmail.com.
Here are 5 of our friends at CCSA showing off their new backpacks, thanks to your generosity in the summer of 2022!
God bless your generosity and kind heart.
