In the bag: Rotary Club of Moses Lake helps families with Backpacks 4 Kids event

MOSES LAKE — Members of the Rotary Club of Moses Lake gathered Aug. 10 at Larson Heights Elementary School to put together backpacks filled with school supplies for the club’s annual Backpacks 4 Kids project.

The event aims to assist low-income children and families with having school supplies ready to go when the school year begins. David Campbell, former Rotary Club president and club member, was heading up the project this year and said it typically provides between 500 and 700 backpacks each year.

A few club members arrived at the school at 3 p.m. to set up before a team of club members arrived an hour later to begin filling the backpacks with a variety of school supplies. Backpacks included wide ruled notebook paper, pencils, washable markers, crayons, glue sticks, an eraser, pencil pouch and the backpack itself.

Just more than 550 backpacks will be available for students and families this year. Backpacks will be distributed to parents of students at Larson Heights Elementary and North Elementary schools at a back-to-school event in the last week of August.

Campbell said Moses Lake School District officials are deciding which students are most at need, while supplies for the backpacks were put together based on a consolidated school supply list applicable to kindergarten through fifth-graders.

The project is completely funded by the Rotary Club, and Campbell said the club has been buying materials in bulk the last few years to maximize its use of funds. While the Backpacks 4 Kids project is focused on elementary-age students in the area around the former Larson Air Force Base, Campbell said other local volunteer organizations and church groups have similar projects to assist students at the other local schools in Moses Lake.