YRMC school supply drive fills more than 2,200 backpacks

Boxes filled with donated pencils, crayons, folders and even calculators were set up like an assembly line Wednesday for Yuma Regional Medical Center volunteers.

They worked all day at the YRMC Corporate Center, stuffing backpacks full of these supplies and then tossing them onto sorted piles.

After all donations are sorted, the more than 2,200 backpacks will be given to Yuma students who might not otherwise have the basic items they need for school.

All this was the result of YRMC's month-long school supply drive. Collection began July 1 and officially ended Wednesday.

Shay Andres, community relations specialist for YRMC, said they do not know exactly how many backpacks they collected but they exceeded their goal of 2,200.

However, it's not too late to donate. Andres said volunteers will accept items at the Corporate Center until Friday.

Brittney Beck, 17, and Gabriel Pereda, 11, were among the volunteers filling packs at the center.

Beck's mother works at YRMC and the Kofa High School student has volunteered for the hospital in the past.

Pereda said his grandmother, a YRMC nurse, got him involved.

Beck said it was strange at first filling packs for fellow high school students but she quickly got involved in the project.

"When I got here I didn't know we were doing high-school age," Beck said. "I thought we were doing elementary kids. Everyone deserves a great education."

Pereda is going to be a seventh-grader at Woodard Junior High School this year. He said volunteering was "kind of hard and fun."

"The hardest part is putting everything into the backpack. The fun part is getting to throw them all over the room to stack them," Pereda said.

The packs, and the supplies that go in them, will be distributed to area school districts and youth organizations to disperse to underprivileged children.

"Through counselors or nurses they very tactfully get them to the children," said Gloria Godley, a nurse and YRMC and supply drive volunteer.

YRMC has been holding this drive since 1999. Andres said it was started by hospital employees and modeled around similar programs in Phoenix.

Andres said it supposedly started when one employee saw two girls walking to school using grocery bags for backpacks. That was the impetus for the drive.

The goal was only 200 backpacks that first year. Andres said it has grown with the community and Yuma's needs.

YRMC SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE

Though the drive officially ended Aug. 1, YRMC volunteers will be at the Corporate Center, 399 W. 32nd St., filling backpacks until Friday. Donations can still be dropped off this week from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Items collected include:

*1,490 elementary school backpacks filled with: pencils, crayons, scissors, folders, glue, notebook paper, colored pencils or markers, pencil sharpener, erasers and a ruler.

*425 junior high and middle school packs with most of those items, plus a high-lighter, three-ring binder and dictionary.

*285 high school packs: in addition to standard school supplies, these also contain math equipment such as calculators, compasses and protractors. YRMC personnel say there are not enough calculators for every pack but they will give them to every student they can.

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Sarah Reynolds can be reached at

sreynolds@yumasun.com or 539-6847.