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Backpacks with donated supplies filled for thousands of students

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Updated  July 21, 2024 8:18am PDT
Oakland
KTVU FOX 2

Thousands of backpacks packed with donated school supplies

In the annual "Stay-In-School" packing event, 6,000 fully-stocked backpacks to Oakland Unified Students in its packing party.

OAKLAND, Calif. - The 25th annual Stay-in-School packing event is sending 6,000 fully-stocked backpacks to Oakland Unified students after Saturday's packing party.

Volunteers with Lend a Hand filled thousands of backpacks with supplies. Bags for younger students include crayons and drawing paper.

For the older students, their supplies include writing and note-taking materials.

The backpacks will be delivered to about 30 schools in the area.

Despite having thousands of bags ready to go, according to the founder, more work still needs to be done.

"We're still getting calls from schools saying 'can you please just give us something?' …We are really hoping that people will continue to be able to help us because we do need the help. We want to make sure our students are prepared," said Dee Johnson, the founder and executive director of Lend a Hand.

In its 25 years, Lend a Hand has gifted 160,000 backpacks to local students.