IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Community Partners Step Up To Deliver 2,500 New Backpacks To Wellington Students The old adage “it takes a village” took on a whole new meaning when a wide array of community organizations joined forces to meet the 2,500 backpack challenge set by the Village of Wellington’s Community Services Department. The demand for backpacks filled with school supplies was up sharply over previous years. “We were amazed to hear that more than 2,400 Wellington students will be receiving either free or reduced-cost lunch this school year, but we were up to the challenge,” said Tom Wenham, chair of the Wellington Community Foundation. “I have to say that seeing everyone come together made it a really overwhelming success.” The Wellington Community Foun-
dation, now in its fifth year of working with the village to deliver new backpacks and school uniforms to Wellington students in need, received a call that this year the number of students that needed assistance had risen to 2,500. Would the foundation be up to the challenge? Without hesitation, the foundation’s board jumped into action. Knowing this was a huge undertaking with little time to prepare, the board members knew it would take the entire community coming together to get the goal accomplished. Although the foundation’s donors showed up with generous support last year during the WCF’s Red, White & Blue Jeans virtual fundraiser, the nonprofit would have to ral-
Michelle Garvey, Paulette Edwards, Pam Tahan, Maggie Zeller, Tom Wenham and Dr. Gordon Johnson.
Donna Page and RoseAnn LaBella Voils representing sponsor the Christopher Aguirre Memorial Foundation.
22
august 2021 | wellington the magazine
ly more donations and support to bring the goal of 2,500 backpacks to fruition. Several organizations joined WCF on this mission, including the Christopher Aguirre Memorial Foundation, the Rotary Club of Wellington, Women of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, My Community Pharmacy, Premier Family Health, Prominence Health Plan, Baptist Health, the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Health Specialty Center, Clinics Can Help and the Village of Wellington. With the assistance of Wellington’s Michelle Garvey and Paulette Edwards, goals and event dates were set.The mission was to collect as many school supplies as needed to fill backpacks at the “backpack stuffing” event that took
Arlene Smith and Ravi Culbertson.
Event sponsor Women of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. (Front) Jen Hernandez, Dr. Benita De Mirza, Kaela Genovese and Sherron Permashwar; and (back) Melissa DiMartino, Kathleen Williams, Jenn Cohen and Arlene Smith.