COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Thousands of children in Colorado Springs will be ready to head back to school thanks to the hard work and generosity of volunteers and donors with COSILoveYou and the Pikes Peak United Way.
The groups held their third annual Backpack Bash distribution Saturday. The groups collected 15,000 new backpacks and filled them with school supplies for the upcoming school year.
There were so many backpacks to give away that the distribution was split up across two weekends, with the first deliveries occurring on Saturday July 31.
Stu Davis, Executive Director of COSILoveYou said the positive attitude among the volunteers and the backpack recipients was contagious.
"We love this, we love the energy about it, we love the enthusiasm about it," he said. "Its been a lot of work to get to this day and as many families as we can help get back to school and get excited to get back to school, we'll say yes to that."
The two organizations spent weeks raising money and collecting donations to prepare for the event . Elizabeth Quevedo, Director of Community Impact at Pikes Peak United Way said there's no shame in receiving the gifts.
"We're invested in families and students and we want to make sure if a family has a need, don't hesitate to come out," she said. "We are here for you, we want to see you, we want to embrace you and we want to make sure you have what you need for you students to go back to school."
Thirty local charities and organizations helped to donate to the bash.
