UNM athletes in basketball, football, soccer and track and field have made a commitment to partner with students from Highland High School in support of what they hope will be an annual event, the “Student to Student Backpacks for Student Success Program.”
Last year, Albuquerque Public Schools served more than 3,000 students in Title 1 Schools in need of school supplies. Beginning this week, UNM athletes enrolled in a Research Service Learning Course, Urban Problem Solving, will join with APS, Office of School/Community Relations to begin sorting school supplies by grade level and preparing backpacks for students in elementary and middle school. The supplies and backpacks were donated by Character Counts and were delivered to the UNM Football complex last Friday.
A goal to prepare at least 800-1,000 backpacks this week to help meet the APS deadline of July 26 has been set by the athletes. They have also begun planning a celebratory event that will take place at the UNM PIT on July 26, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., where the backpacks will be distributed to students from all over the city.
The athletes have recommended to the Research Service Learning Program and APS to have counselors, Health Care Providers, ROTC and any available athletes to support and encourage grade school children to stay in school, set goals and follow their dreams.
APS Highland High School service learning students are hosting drop off boxes at various Wal-Mart locations throughout Albuquerque to accept additional donations of specialty school supplies such as graphing calculators and general school supplies for K-12 students.
The 2008 APS School Supply Drive continues through July 25. School supplies can be dropped off at All metro-area Wal-Mart stores and New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union locations.
Supplies needed for elementary students include: small backpacks, boxes of 24 crayons, boxes of 10 markers, watercolor sets, boxes of colored pencils, #2 pencils, scissors, erasers, glue sticks, wide-ruled spiral notebooks, folders, rulers, highlighters, red pens, pencil bags, wide-ruled notebook paper and white glue.
Supplies needed for middle and high school students include: large backpacks, erasable pens, #2 pencils, highlighters, markers, box of 24 colored pencils, erasers, scissors, college-ruled notebook paper, college-ruled spiral notebooks, 3-ring pocket folders, rulers, protractors, compasses and glue sticks.
For more information on the school supply drive, call the APS Service Center at 855-9040.
Posted by scarr at June 16, 2008 05:50 PM