CADCA Joins Office Depot Foundation in Backpack Donation Program to Help DC-Area Children Avoid Drugs and Succeed in School

If you put together all 2.5 million kids who the Office Depot Foundation has reached through its National Backpack Program since 2001, they would fill up about 50,000 school buses! That’s a lot of kids – and a lot of success stories.

This week, the Foundation and its partner, CADCA, donated 2,600 ‘sackpacks’ to each and every student at the Two Rivers Public Charter School. The Foundation and CADCA presented the ‘sackpacks’ to the children—complete with school supplies—during a special back-to-school celebration held at the school. The newly-designed sackpacks, which were specially created for the Foundation, and inspired by youth, reflect and respond to changes in the ways that children are taking their materials to school.
 
“In keeping with our mission – Listen, Learn, Care. − we’ve created these fun and exciting sackpacks in response to what kids have told us they like,” said Foundation President Mary Wong at the event. “We are thrilled to donate these very cool sackpacks to more children in a single year than ever before. “Every year, we have seen our donations bring hope to children whose families might not be able to afford to buy school supplies."
 
“Parents and teachers alike tell us that we truly are helping children to build self-confidence, boost self-esteem and achieve greater success in the classroom – all as a result of being properly prepared for school,” she continued. 

CADCA works daily to make America’s communities safe, healthy and drug-free. To further support the leadership development of our nation’s youth, CADCA created the National Youth Leadership Initiative. The NYLI equips youth with the essential knowledge and skills needed to make significant community-level change.

CADCA’s Chairman and CEO, Gen. Arthur T. Dean told the group of special guests which included parents, teachers, administrators, and D.C. Council member Harry Thomas, Jr., “CADCA has been partnering with the Office Depot Foundation since 2002 and we consider it a great honor to be here today, contributing to a successful start of school for these outstanding students. Through this partnership with the Office Depot Foundation, we are looking forward to continuing and cultivating our relationship with Two Rivers Public Charter School and conducting youth leadership and substance use and abuse prevention training with these fine young people.”

The NYLI provides youth-driven training for the next generation of coalition leaders and community problem solvers. The return-of-investment for CADCA is simple: Youth are deeply vested in community change; empowered by the implementation of Youth in Action projects which contribute to population-level reduction in substance use and abuse.

“We are grateful that CADCA and The Office Depot Foundation have selected our students to receive this generous donation. To our students, this donation will be useful and fun. To the school, it symbolizes a commitment by CADCA and The Office Depot Foundation to the education and development of our students. We are thrilled with their generosity and excited by their commitment,” said Two Rivers Public Charter School’s Executive Director, Jessica K. Wodatch, who spoke at the morning celebration.