Boys and Girls Clubs See Record Breaking Backpack Donations

ST. CLOUD -- The Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota had a record-breaking year for their annual school supply drive that ended last Friday.

The "Stuff the Bus: School Supply Drive" lasts about six weeks. During the drive, a school bus was placed inside Crossroads Center to encourage people to stuff the bus full of supplies.

Aimee Minnerath is the marketing director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota. She says several mall shoppers donated supplies and many businesses did as well.

"It started this spring with Crossroads Shopping Center. They decided to do a "Stuff the Bus" campaign for kids. They were able to collect, through that stuff the bus campaign about 100 backpacks with supplies for kids. Which was awesome and was all donated by people in the community."

Outside of the people that donated at Crossroads Center. About 350 more backpacks were donated from area businesses along with additional school supplies. But, Minnerath says one donation was particularly heartwarming.

"A little girl who is five-years-old, she's just going to be starting kindergarten this fall, named Cordelia. She ran a lemonade stand outside Clothes Mentor, I believe it was the end of July and she was able to raise over $100 for the Boys and Girls Club to purchase backpacks for kids."

With Cordelia's donation, the club was able to buy 30 backpacks which pushed their grand total of backpacks to just under 500. Minnerath says this total is record-breaking for the club.

In years past, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Minnesota usually collect about 350-400 backpacks filled with school supplies.