THANK YOU from the VOA/Operation Backpack® Team!
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A note of thanks from Volunteers of America/Operation Backpack® for the generosity of our members in helping to reach their fundraising goal and provide 18,000 children with backpacks and school supplies for the new school year.
"Thank you! Every summer, over 230 homeless and domestic violence shelters across New York City rely on Volunteers of America-Greater New York to provide backpacks and school supplies for their children through Operation Backpack®.
When the pandemic entirely disrupted the campaign, and we couldn't hold public backpack drives or invite thousands of volunteers to help, it would have been easy to say, "Not this year." But that would have left many of the city's most vulnerable children even more disadvantaged.
Instead, you — the New York City community and beyond — pivoted with us, and together we provided new backpacks and grade-specific school supplies for 18,000 students living in shelters across the five boroughs. We heard that when one little girl living in a homeless shelter in Queens opened her box of school supplies, she looked up at her case worker and said, "These can't all be for me!"
Watch this year's Thank You video and see how you can help Volunteers of America-Greater New York give 2,000 of these same children living in our shelters access to one more back-to-school essential: reliable Wi-Fi."
