PROFILE makes a difference between a kid being excited to go to school and not wanting to go. We all deeply understand what it must be like to have less than your classmates and if you are going to school like that, you are going to feel less than. You’re afraid of being discovered because homelessness, unfortunately, still has this very misplaced veil of shame. Kids are terrified. Operation Backpack gives kids the confidence and dignity to go to school as their housed classmates do.� Hence, Operation Backpack aims to equip students with the school supplies that they need. Its umbrella organization, Volunteers of America, has shelters and programs that are geared toward helping the homeless find jobs and, eventually, housing that they can afford. Perhaps it’s her musical theater background, or perhaps it’s just her zeal for her work with Volunteers of America, but Paige’s entire face lights up in admiration for the donors when she talks about getting brand-new protractors and backpacks out to thousands of children. While her mannerisms are generally animated, they reach an exceptionally elevated note when she describes being able to use her voice and musical theater gifts at events that benefit Operation Backpack: a seamless melding of her passions for theater and helping the New York City community.
These two communities, albeit discrete, are both manifestations of the city that she has fallen in love with so completely. Paige currently resides on the Upper West Side. When asked what makes a person a true New Yorker, the first adjective she uses is “resilient.� She elaborates: “I just think you gotta be able to bounce back because it’s a tough city. They always say if you can make it here you can make it anywhere and, you have to believe that or the city will eat you alive. But that’s just because it’s a train—it’s in motion, it doesn’t stop. I love that it never sleeps; I love that it never, ever sleeps.� And Paige doesn’t either. She was recently nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for her show on the Oprah Winfrey Network: Home Made Simple. She continues to dedicate her time to Volunteers of America and Operation Backpack. Of course, you can’t keep Paige off of Broadway. She was most recently in a triumphant return as Roxie in Chicago. With an almost gleeful smile, she tells us that she is running MBUF GPS EBODF DMBTT BOE JT PVU UIF EPPS t
OperationBackpackNYC.org
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