Volunteers gathered at Stevenson Elementary the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 16, to assemble back to school backpacks as part of the “Good Start Back to School,” project. The backpacks, which were filled with crayons, pencils, erasers and notebooks will be given to students in the Bellevue School District who are in need of school supplies, and would otherwise go without.

A partnership between the district and nonprofit Congregation for Kids, the “Good Start Back to School” program has filled more than 15,000 backpack requests since forming in 1996. This school year, the project will provide backpacks and supplies to approximately 1439 students will start school with the supplies they need, a 5 percent increase from last year. An addition 100 backpacks will be packed for students who may need them later in the year.

“It’s important that [these children] are able to start school like everyone else,” said Nancy Jacobs, chair of the project since 1999.

The nonprofit holds donation drives to collect boxes full of binders, glue sticks, erasers, markers and more in mid-August. All names submitted to the district are withheld from the Congregation for Kids, so all donations are recipients are anonymous. However, volunteers will spend the coming days stuffing new backpacks with supplies tailored to the gender and grade level of the student who requested it: crayons and markers for younger students and pens, post-it notes and flash drives for older students. Special attention is also given to backpack styles to make sure classrooms don’t have several backpacks that all look the same.

“You can’t identify one of these kids,” Jacobs said.

Taking part in the project this year are 31 congregations, two service organizations, two corporations, one business, one foundation and the Seattle University School of Law Legal Writing Program.

Students will receive them a week before school starts. For more information on the partnership go to www.bsd405.org.

Keegan Prosser; 425-453-4602

kprosser@bellevuereporter.com