Townsend Elementary School is a small local K-5 school with an attendance of only 142. My idea was to pay our decade of camping blessings forward to the kids at that school by sending each one of them home with a backpack stuffed full of goodies.
I sent out a list of 101 ideas for stuffing those backpacks and my Blue Ridgers went to work. Lots of them put together an extra one to give and that was really needed due to all the last minute rally cancellations I was having. Several of us donated empty backpacks and collected supplies so we could make up the difference and make sure each kid got one.
I even had Blue Ridgers who had to cancel their reservation still send in backpacks and items! Friends of our folks back home donated money and items, so we were blessed by such generosity. Barbara let us store all the packs in a room off the office and that sent the first wave of cold chills through us!
On Monday morning, a delegation of Blue Ridgers delivered and presented 25 backpacks to the 5th graders at their graduation ceremony. I told the gathered audience of students, parents, and grandparents about our project and we got quite the ovation. A photographer and reporter from the Maryville Daily Times were there to document the presentation.