As students of Collington Square School get ready to start the new school year, nearly 300 backpacks with leveled reading books await them. The school was the beneficiary of the generous donation of these backpacks at the end of June by United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM).
UWCM is committed to meeting the basic needs of their low-income, at-risk neighbors across central Maryland. By mobilizing the community to give, advocate and volunteer, UWCM helps thousands of individuals and families get out of crisis, stay out of crisis and achieve higher-quality, self-sufficient lives. Education is central to that. By supporting our children's education, UWCM helps give them the tools they need to one day have happy, healthy and independent lives.
On June 21, 2011, UWCM participated in the United Way National Day of Action. UWCM rallied a bus-load of volunteers and went down to the National Mall, where United Way Worldwide organized an assembly line of books, backpacks and volunteers. UWCM joined more than 1,000 volunteers and helped pack more than 50,000 backpacks with summer reading to give to students at high-need schools. United Way of Central Maryland volunteers packed approximately 3,000 backpacks, which were brought back to central Maryland to distribute. Many of the backpacks have been distributed to nonprofits working with children, and to the Baltimore Curriculum Project and Collington Square.
As part of the National Day of Action, UWCM joined forces with United Way Worldwide and hundreds of other local United Ways in a commitment to rally 1 million readers, tutors or mentors as education volunteers. UWCM is encouraging people across central Maryland to sign the pledge to be an education volunteer at www.liveunited.org/LUWvolunteer. By signing the pledge, volunteers will receive updates from UWCM about volunteer opportunities across the region.
We would like to thank United Way of Central Maryland for supporting our schools.