Backpack

Hattiesburg Junior Auxiliary to Provide 1,200 Backpacks to Area Students

HATTIESBURG, MISS., Thursday, July 28, 2011— 1,200 Hattiesburg area students will start school with new backpacks full of school supplies provided by the Junior Auxiliary (JA) of Hattiesburg.

The Backpack Service Project takes place each summer, serving kindergarten through fifth grade students from 19 Hattiesburg area schools in Forrest and Lamar Counties.

 Starting at 10:30, Monday, August 1, the media is invited to see this far-reaching project in action, as Backpack workers will start assembling backpacks at First Presbyterian Church of Hattiesburg.

 After the backpacks are filled and sorted, JA Backpack committee members will deliver them to area schools.  School staff will later distribute the backpacks to area students.

 “This project is such an enormous undertaking for Junior Auxiliary, and as you can imagine, there is no way we could do it on our own,” said JA of Hattiesburg President, Sarah Atkinson. “This project alone has a budget of over $20,000, which we raise through the generous contributions of the community at our annual Charity Ball. Because of that support, more than a thousand children will be impacted through this service project.”