By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Despite a huge amount of unknowns for local school districts related to COVID-19, a local agency will again provide struggling families with backpacks and supplies.

Two collection events are planned this week to help support the Livingston Educational Service Agency’s 19th Annual Backpacks for Kids. The project provides students in Livingston County whose families are experiencing financial difficulties with basic school supplies at no cost. Great Start Livingston Coordinator Robin Schutz says it can be a big expense for families and helps get students off to a good start – adding they knew there would still be a need for students to have supplies and backpacks no matter what.

Due to COVID-19, the collection of monetary donations and supplies got underway a little later than normal. Two collection events are planned this week at the Howell Walmart. Backpacks and school supplies appropriate for all age levels between pre-school and high school are being collected. On Thursday, Michigan State Police at the Brighton Post are coordinating a “Stuff the Blue Goose” event from 11am to 4pm. Then on Friday, a Livingston ESA bus will be on site from 10am to 2pm to collect supplies. Various businesses and organizations have been hosting other collection events and supplies can also be dropped off at the LESA Education Center off Grand River.

After everything is collected, Schutz says the backpacks will be filled a few days before the distribution event, which is set for Thursday, August 6th at the Livingston Educational Service Agency building, 1425 W. Grand River Ave. in Howell. Connect for Kids is held in conjunction with the Backpacks for Kids event and provides resources and information for families with community partners on site. For this year, Schutz says participating community partners will provide one page informational sheets that will be put in folders in the backpacks so families can still access that information and learn about different resources in the community. The actual distribution event on the 6th will be broken up by public school district to help with the flow of the event and be done in alphabetical order in two-hour time slots starting at 10am. Details can be found through the provided web link.