CellMark Novato office collects backpacks for kids in need

It’s back to school season in the United States.

A typical tradition for U.S. children is shopping for a new backpack and getting all of the supplies they need for school. Pencils, notebooks, glue, scissors, and crayons are typical must-haves for a successful school year.

Unfortunately, most U.S. schools cannot afford to provide these kinds of supplies to students, and the high cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area can make this fun tradition a burden for many families.

To help ease this burden, the Novato PaperSeed Local Team in the CellMark Novato office, conducts an annual school supply collection in partnership with the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center (FSACC), a local child care center for low income families.

Each year, our friends at FSACC sends us a list that includes the first name, gender, and grade level of each child who needs a backpack. The PaperSeed Novato team puts that information on apple cards which are posted in the office kitchen, and co-workers are encouraged to take one or two cards and shop for those specific children.

This year, we also invited the rest of our Novato office building to participate by providing supplies or even cash donations so the team can buy extra supplies.

How many backpacks we collected? 82! As many as apple cards! Fantastic!

From left to right: Anamaria Pistoia, Fatima Zelaya Parker, Cinthia Valero, and Roxana Valero in CellMark Novato office show off this year’s wall of apples.

Pencils, notebooks, glue, scissors, and crayons are typical must-haves for a successful school year.

82 backpacks filled with necessary supplies needed for school. Fantastic!

Happy children with their new backpacks. Let school begin!