Promo Distributor Takes Part in Program Donating Hundreds of Backpacks to Schoolchildren in Need

By Tom Higgins

In Ship Bottom, N.J., hundreds of students have been prepared for the upcoming school year through a charitable tradition that deserves every bit of praise.

On July 22, a nationwide backpack giveaway sponsored by TCC (the nation’s largest Verizon authorized retailer) and Verizon Wireless stores took place. In Ship Bottom, where 220 backpacks filled with school supplies were sent to a local TCC store, children and their families lined up to take part in the event and did not leave disappointed.

The program, dubbed the "School Rocks Backpack Giveaway," began in 2013, and has since led to the donation of over 752,000 fully stocked backpacks, with 1,200 TCC and Verizon Wireless stores participating this year alone.

The donated backpacks came from BLU, a promotional distributor and brand of Bluesource, whose mission statement is to "provide high quality, low-cost school supplies to nonprofit organizations, enabling them to help more children."

Inside the backpacks, which were available in a range of colors and patterns, students found boxes of pencils, a pencil case, a glue stick, a folder, a notebook and other back-to-school products.

While the majority of the bags were handed out to students and their families, any leftovers were retained to be donated to other charitable programs, including women's shelters and local schools.

Here at Promo Marketing, we know that the promotional products industry is full of distributors who care about their communities, and that's why we're always looking for positive stories to report about charities and community outreach programs going on in the industry.

After all, in a world where so much news is negative, we could all use a little positivity from time to time.