Soroptimist helps kids prepare for school

MOSES LAKE - The backpack. A common school supply typically filled with pens, paper and textbooks - but one local organization is filling them with daily life essentials such as clothing, grooming products, and even food.

Soroptimist International of Moses Lake (SIML) created two programs designed to help provide basic, yet essential, items to kids who may not have access to them at home, and to deliver the items in the discrete form of a backpack.

Care4Kids is a project that was created by SIML in 2008. For nearly six years the project has been providing children grades K-5 with new clothing and hygiene kits. The goal of the project is to help boost student's self-image and sense of acceptance among peers with the idea that a poor self-imagine is a contributing factor to poor school performance.

SIML works closely with school teachers and counselors who help determine which kids might need some extra help.

"A teacher will notice if a child continues to wear the same clothes and pass that information onto a counselor," SIML Committee Co-Chair Lisa Bradley said. That school counselor reaches out to the child's family to ask if they are open to accepting a backpack. If so, SIML is contacted and a backpack tailored to that child's needs is provided within three school days. In some cases, depending on the need, SIML will supply backpacks for the whole household, Bradley said.

While providing students with items such as new tennis shoes and toothbrushes helps, a new need has surfaced over the years - food. Many students in the Moses Lake School District receive free and reduced lunches. Teachers at North Elementary started noticing children were hungry, and found that the meals provided at school were the only meals some children received.

"It breaks my heart to hear about children not getting fed," Bradley said. After the need for meals at home was identified, SIML expanded their Care4Kids program to include Food4Kids. Through this program, food is packaged into a backpack available for a child to pick up on Friday, eat the food over the weekend and return the empty backpack on Monday. Between the two programs SIML provided close to 100 backpacks last year, and they plan and hope that number will grow. Soroptomist expanded the Food4Kids program to two schools this year: North Elementary and Midway Elementary because of increased need, according to Bradley.

To help raise funds, SIML hosted a dinner party at the Pillar Rock Grill on June 14. The sold-out event exceeded fundraising goals and raised enough funds to reach this year's goal of filling 100 backpacks and 100 hygiene kits.

"Thanks to the generous support of our community, we raised enough funds at the fundraiser to continue our Care4Kids, Food4Kids, Scholarships and Awards, and Domestic Violence programs," Bradley said.

Also at the event, SIML recognized the recipients of their 2014 College Scholarships. Perla Bravo, future pediatric oncologist, Skylar Kimbro, future teacher, and Morgan Hansen, future engineer, all of Moses Lake High School, received scholarships to be put toward their dreams of pursuing higher education.

"Having lost a family member to cancer I would like to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening to others, especially young children. This fall, thanks to generous donors such as Soroptomist, I will begin my wonderful journey in the medical field," Bravo said.