NBC Connecticut Viewers Stuff 500 Backpacks with School Supplies for Hartford Students

NBC Connecticut thanks all the donors and volunteers to our sixth annual school supply drive!
Our team can proudly say it exceeded its goal of 500 backpacks stuffed with pencils, rulers and notebooks kids need to be good students.

The plan was to fill a Connecticut Fastrak bus with all the supplies, a lot of heavy lifting for volunteers from organizations including Target, The Boys and Girls Club of Hartford, The Urban League of Greater Hartford, NBC Connecticut and Travelers Insurance.

“Education is our number one focus area, and we just want to make sure that our students are ready for the school year,"  Rita Ortiz, Travelers Director of Community Relations, said

NBC Connecticut and its partners had been collecting school supplies for weeks, culminating today with this drop off at the New Britain Target.  A last minute donation of several dozen boxes of supplies by an anonymous donor gave a great last minute boost. 

“When you think about back to school making sure academically our kids are all on the same playing field so to speak, this helps all kids," Sam Gray, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Hartford, said.

Many of the backpacks full of school supplies were given out Saturday afternoon at an Urban League of Greater Hartford event.  And the students were thrilled. 

“I got paper, binders, folders, notebooks," Nicole Wolyniec, a local 8th grader, said.

The rest of the backpacks will be delivered to students at the Asian Studies Academy at the Bellizzi School in Hartford next week.
 

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