Medical center's backpack drive to aid 3,300 kids

Leonard L. Hayhurst, Coshocton Tribune
·2 min read
Members of the Coshocton Kiwanis Club fill backpacks, part of a campaign by Coshocton Regional Medical Center. About 3,300 area children will receive a backpack filled with items for the coming school year.
Members of the Coshocton Kiwanis Club fill backpacks, part of a campaign by Coshocton Regional Medical Center. About 3,300 area children will receive a backpack filled with items for the coming school year.

COSHOCTON — A great response to filling a community need has led Coshocton Regional Medical Center to hold a fill the backpack campaign for the second consecutive year.

The first drive last summer had 3,300 backpacks filled with items for Coshocton County elementary school students. The same amount was done this year.

The medical center worked with various partners on the initiative and received donations from several community members and businesses. Volunteers including medical center staff and those from community organizations recently filled the backpacks with items.

Helping were members of Kiwanis, Rotary, Business and Professional Women, Pink Ladies Auxiliary, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Family and Children First Council, Coshocton Health Department, Coshocton Junior Women's Club, Fanatics, Coshocton Port Authority and Coshocton County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

The backpacks will be distributed to school districts and parents should receive communication from the schools on when and how they can receive them. Schools included are Coshocton, River View, Ridgewood, Newcomerstown, Coshocton Christian, Sacred Heart, Head Start and Hopewell.

Items include pencils, crayons, scissors, glue sticks, colored pencils, dry erase markers, tissues, highlighters and supply box.

The Coshocton Regional Medical Center worked with various partners on the backpack initiative and received donations from several community members and businesses. Volunteers including medical center staff and those from community organizations recently filled the backpacks with items.
The Coshocton Regional Medical Center worked with various partners on the backpack initiative and received donations from several community members and businesses. Volunteers including medical center staff and those from community organizations recently filled the backpacks with items.

"Our hope is to reduce the financial burden on not only the families but also teachers. The pandemic has brought many challenges and as we try to get back to normal, we want to make the start of this coming school year a little easier for each of them," said Kaylee Andrews, manager of business development and marketing at CRMC.

Corazon Britton joined Kiwanis last September and became a youth services librarian at the Coshocton Public Library System last summer. She said Kiwanis is focused on helping children in the community, which the backpack drive impacts.

Britton works with school children through her role at the library and knows how important the school item donations are.

"At the library we're trying to give them a foundation for success with early literacy from the time their babies all the way up to being adults. This is helping them be successful in school and really ties into what we do hand-in-hand," Britton said.

Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with close to 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.

This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Medical center's backpack drive to aid 3,300 kids