THE GREAT BOYS & GIRLS CLUB SUPPLY CHALLENGE

The National Retail Federation estimates parents will pay an average of $849 per household on school supplies, an amount that many of our Club families cannot afford. We invite you to help offset this cost by participating in our annual Great Boys & Girls Clubs School Supply Challenge.

The Impact of Back to School Challenge: Carly’s Story

I almost failed 5th grade. It wasn’t really my fault though. I just didn’t have the stuff I needed. My dad works a lot to take care of my sister and me, but most of the money he gets has to go to rent. That is why we had to use the backpacks with the zippers that didn’t close.  

By the first week of school, I had lost all of my pencils and had to borrow them from the teacher, and she was mad because I came unprepared. It was so frustrating. I didn’t even have any binder paper because my dad bought printing paper. The kind with no lines! They didn’t even have holes in them so I just shoved them in the binder pocket. It made me feel bad because it made me look sloppy.  

Usually, my mom would do the shopping, but now that it is just my dad and sister and me things are harder. My dad works all the time and no one is home to help with shopping and stuff. We stayed with my grandma after school for a week or so but that didn’t work well so my dad signed us up for Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin. 

When I got to Club, Lily, the staffer, noticed that my backpack was broken and I had no proper paper. She asked me and my sister what are favorite colors were. Mine is red and my sister’s is green. We are like Christmas colors!  

Then Lily went to a room and came out with a brand-new red backpack for me and a green one for my sister! The backpack was already filled with lots of pens, pencils, highlighters, binders, notebooks, and even colored pencils! And it was FOR FREE because of their Back to School fundraiser! When my dad picked us up he cried because he was so happy.  

I didn’t end up failing 5th grade. I actually did really good because I had so much school stuff! I wasn’t worried I would get in trouble or that I wouldn’t have the right things. I even helped my classmate who didn’t have pencils. Thank you Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin and thank you Lily!