The start of a new school year is daunting enough for homeless children without adding the stigma of sitting down to a desk without the essential tools many of their classmates may take for granted.

Volunteers of America’s Operation Backpack, which continues through July 23, aims to boost the confidence of Sacramento-area youth in need by providing new backpacks and school supplies to help them achieve academic excellence in spite of their frequently precarious living situations.

The sixth-annual community drive invites the public to support these children and their families by bringing a new backpack filled with fresh school supplies to one of the more than 130 Operation Backpack drop-off locations, including 22 area Tri Counties Bank branches and over 100 Starbucks. Donations also will be accepted at the Volunteers of America administration office (1900 Point West Way, Suite 270, Sacramento).

Operation Backpack drop-off sites will be identified by promotional posters featuring Sacramento River Cats players Michael Taylor and Mickey Storey. Contributions also may be brought to the daylong community drop-off event July 23 at the Sacramento Arden Fair Tri Counties Bank parking lot, 1760 Challenge Way, Sacramento (4:30 a.m.-7 p.m.).

For a list of drop-off locations, and to download one of the three grade-specific school-supply lists, go online to www.OperationBackpackSac.org. Information on the many ways the community can support Operation Backpack – from contributing financially, to volunteering, to hosting a private drive at a workplace, at a house of worship, or through one’s service club – also can be found at OperationBackpackSac.org.

“Sacramento City Unified School District serves many students who live in shelters, run-down motels, in cars, on the street, etc.,” said SCUSD program director-homeless liaison Monica McRho. “With the economic crisis, many housed families are now on the brink of joining this homeless population. Despite the bleakness and uncertainty in their lives, these students have one thing in common ... they want to be in school with their peers. But they lack adequate school supplies, which leads to embarrassment and absenteeism. New backpacks and school supplies help motivate them to attend school, succeed in their work, and fit in with their peers. It is so rewarding to see the excitement and joy on their faces as they receive their backpacks. The students waste no time in opening them up, and pulling out the contents for everyone to see. It is a small thing to most of us, but means everything to them.”

The statistics are startling: Homeless children who attend school (more than 6,000 in Sacramento County alone) face a variety of challenges. Compared to other children, national statistics show they are:

• four times as likely to have developmental delays
• twice as likely to have learning disabilities
• twice as likely to repeat a grade (most often due to frequent absences and moves to new schools)

Operation Backpack seeks to provide some sense of normalcy to these children’s lives – boosting their self-esteem by giving them new backpacks and school supplies so they may start the school year feeling more like “regular kids.”

Sponsored this year by Tri Counties Bank, KCRA 3/KQCA 58, PG&E, the Sacramento River Cats and Thunder Valley Casino Resort, Volunteers of America hopes to exceed last year’s distribution of 3,000 supply-filled backpacks.

Established locally in 1911, the Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada affiliate of Volunteers of America is one of the largest providers of social services in the region, operating more than 40 programs in eight categories: homeless services; homeless shelters; substance abuse treatment and recovery services; senior services; youth services; transitional housing; permanent supportive housing; and low-income housing. For more information about Operation Backpack or Volunteers of America, please go to www.volunteersofamerica-sac.org, or call (916) 442.3691.

Disclosure: Barry Wisdom is the public relations and marketing officer for Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada.