Sac. Regional Learning Center Helps Kids in Need

For the third year in a row, Samuel Merritt University students, faculty and staff from the Sacramento Regional Learning Center (SMLC) participated in the 5th Annual Operation Backpack, a nonprofit organization that provides students with school supplies.

According to Volunteers of America, the non-profit organization for Operation Backpack, more than 5,000 Sacramento County school children have been identified as "homeless" - some 40,000 live in poverty.  That is why students in the Accelerated Bachelors of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program took it upon themselves to collect and donate nearly 50 full backpacks, containing approximately 40 items of school supplies. 

"It is especially important to dedicate ones life to giving back, it's the essence of nursing." said Rene Clymer-Englehart, RN, MSN, Managing Director of SRLC and Assistant Professor. 

Barbara Nichols, ABSN student, agrees.  She recalls what it felt like walking to class on the first day of school and how a box of new crayons really helped break the ice.  "I remember the scared feeling I had when I was their age, trying to make a good first impression from everyone on the school bus, to the kids in my classroom and the teachers.  Knowing that I had a new backpack with a popular cartoon on it, a new box of crayons and paper really helped."

Nearly 2,000 backpacks full of grade-appropriate school supplies were collected and distributed to boys and girls aged 5 to 17 around the Greater Sacramento Area this year.  Organizers believe Operation Backpack is able to provide not only essential back-to-school necessities, but a boost to the children's self-esteem by giving them new backpacks and school supplies so they may start the school year feeling more like "regular kids."

Barry Wisdom, spokesperson for Volunteers of America, said Operation Backpack is a hit due to the continued support and donations from SMU and like-minded organizations.  

"Staff and students of educational institutions - such as Samuel Merritt University - know only too well the importance of properly supplying children with the tools they need to succeed in school," said Wisdom.  "What many of us took for granted when we were younger, like a new backpack, binders, notebooks, calculators - even crayons, are unaffordable luxuries for the parents of thousands of children in need throughout our community.'

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