When students show up to the King/Robinson magnet school on Wednesday, they’ll find 500 backpacks waiting for them, stocked with goodies inside.
The backpacks, donated by the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, were assembled over the weekend at the Community Center at 230 Ashmun St.
Of course, it’s not just backpacks that the students are getting. It’s what’s in them which makes them special: glue sticks, pencils, pens, notebooks, rulers, crayons, erasers, scissors and folders.
Lined up on either side of the table like a true assembly line, volunteers handed down the bags, and called out what they were putting in them, and how many of the items, as each bag was going down the table.
In the past four years, Phi Beta Sigma’s New Haven Alumni Chapter has given over 1,500 backpacks in various K-8 public schools in the city. John Watts, the chapter’s director for social action, said the fraternity’s goal is to give out 500 backpacks this year, bringing their total to 2,000 bags.
Watts, chair of the School Supply Drive, said the fraternity plans year round to bring the materials together for the drive, but they pull the materials together during the two to three weeks before school starts.
“We try to bring in other organizations, Sigma Gamma Rho [Sorority], Zeta Phi Beta [Sorority], the New Haven Police Department, there’s a lot of community supporters, so….we try to get them to invest in our programs,” Watts said. “And we try to put ‘em on the bag, too, so that way, ... the kids can see who supported the school supply drive.” He went on to explain why: “We need to invest in kids. And with the bad economic times, this program ... the worse the economy gets, this program can be a big blessing on families with low-incomes.”
Watts said the fraternity works with the Board of Education each year to identify which schools need supplies. This year, King/Robinson was the lucky winner.
“We did Lincoln-Bassett one year, so we try to move around each year, so,” said Watts. “We want the public’s continued support. This is our fourth year, and we’re looking to do it each year and continue the blessing for New Haven students going back on the first day of school.”
Natalie Roach (pictured with her ‘brother,’ Anthony Johnson of Phi Beta Sigma), president of Zeta Phi Beta’s Phi Lambda Zeta Chapter, and the sister sorority of Phi Beta Sigma, agreed with Watts. At a time when parents have to deal with purchasing food and clothing, “this will make it easier and alleviate the trouble of going to buy school supplies for them, and just to show [the community] that were all here, working together and making sure they are taken care of.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when they get the bags,” she said.
