This summer, the students and staff at the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Ross Medical Education Center campus in Brighton, Michigan have joined together to support Pack Your Back. They are working hard to collect much needed school supplies for families in need in the Detroit area during June and July. Pack Your Back is a nonprofit organization established in 2016 by students after organizers noticed the financial burden families were facing in the Flint, Michigan school system. Pack Your Back is currently working this year to supply the children of Detroit, Michigan with the supplies needed to succeed in the classroom, according to the Pack Your Back website.
All too often, parents do not put school supplies at the top of their shopping list due to other expenses that are more of a priority, such as food and heating. Pack Your Back Co-Founder and Social Media Coordinator Anna Krinke, daughter of Susan Mall-Krinke, Brighton Campus Director, said “we are committed to providing students in need with backpacks and various types of school supplies. The only way a student can succeed in the classroom is if they have the proper supplies.”
Pack Your Back relies on the kind donations from the community and various stores in order to provide the school supplies to the children. The Brighton and Ann Arbor campuses will be drop- off sites through the middle of July. Pack Your Pack has many fundraisers in place including a cook-off and a race. Monetary donations are also encouraged. Throughout June and July, the campuses are collecting pencils, notebooks, pens, paper, crayons, glue sticks, back packs, and other school essentials.
Then during the month of August, Pack Your Back volunteers will be teaming up with nonprofit organizations and distributing all the school supplies that have been collected over the summer to students living in Detroit. The Ann Arbor campus collected supplies last summer and Financial Aid Student Support Representative Jen Eger-Morris was excited to participate, “I think it is awesome that students take time out from their summer to help.”
For more information, email info@packyourback.org, visit Pack Your Back on Facebook, or head to their website at www.packyourback.org.