A group of seniors at Pathways Retirement Residence, with years of experience in caring for their own children and grandchildren, recently enjoyed filling new backpacks with back-to-school supplies for local children in need.
“We want our residents to feel like they’re still active and participating in the community. We had our seniors here put the backpacks together and made an activity of it,” said Stephanie Whitaker, Pathways activities coordinator speaking to SooToday on Friday.
“They were so happy and so thrilled to do it. They had fun with it,” Whitaker said.
“Our team came up with an idea for giving back to the community and we ran with it. That's our goal, to enhance the residents’ lives and it makes them feel like they’re continuing to do what they did earlier in their lives in caring for children and they’re aware of the economic struggles that families have,” said James Noble, Pathways Retirement Residence general manager.
Pathways residents filled 25 backpacks with school supplies for children.
Supplies purchased by Pathways management included the backpacks, water bottles, pencils, pencil crayons, crayons, markers, rulers, erasers, pencil sharpeners and notebooks for elementary school children.
The Pathways project cost approximately $1,500 and each backpack contained approximately $50 of supplies.
“We know that this time of year can be financially difficult for families with the cost of living and back to school expenses so we came up with this idea of filling backpacks for kids. When we were planning on how to distribute them to the kids we found that the United Way has a program called Backpacks for Success,” Whitaker said.
The United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District - the organization having purchased and packed 78 backpacks of its own - collected the 25 backpacks at Pathways on Friday and will distribute them to needy children in time for classes in September.
“A lot of the residents have raised six or seven or up to 10 or 12 kids so they know how difficult it can be and they have a soft spot for children. It’s heartwarming to see,” Whitaker said.
Some of the residents shared how they felt to be involved in the backpack project.
“It’s really nice to know that as we grow older we can still do things that are good for other people. There are people out there that need help and if we can help we should do it,” said Shirley Vine.
“It’s been good to be able to do something like this. It’s nice to be able to help,” said Iris Chalmers.
“There are so many children that don’t have anything to go back to school with and it’s nice to participate in something like this,” said Pauline Gallagher.
“I didn't pack any of these bags but I paid for one complete bag and I had one of the ladies pack it for me. It made me feel great. I love to give money to people in need and these bags will be used by people in need,” said Don Edwards.
The backpack project was a first for Pathways and both Noble and Whitaker said they would like to run it again next year, adding that some residents are looking forward to knitting hats and mittens for needy children for the Christmas season.