Book Bags for Back-to-School Drive
Three hundred book bags for needy children heading back to school in September, that’s the goal set by the Aspire for Greatness Foundation. It’s a target that is within reach and with assistance from the business community. This morning, Orson Picart, the face of the initiative in Belize City, received a generous donation from the Stationery House. News Five was at the brief handing over.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
With a definitive return to the classroom at the start of a new academic year in September, parents are already getting together stationeries and other school supplies that children need. Last month, the Aspire for Greatness Foundation put out a call for businesses, as well as private citizens in Belize and the Diaspora, to come forward with donations to assist families in need. Heeding the call is a well-known company that continues to do its share of corporate citizenship.
Giovanni Alamilla
Giovanni Alamilla, Stationery House
“It’s something that, you know, we try to help everyone whenever we can and however we can every, year. So we spoke a couple times and we are not able to give everything that he needs. We can never give everyone what they want, so we were able to help him with a very good discounted price on everything. So what I told him was that instead of going through the process of securing foreign exchange, shipping it down here, clearing customs, why not purchase it locally and with the discounted price we were able to make it worthwhile for him.”
Leading the charge to procure as many as three hundred backpacks as part of the back to school initiative is media personality Orson Picart. The foundation which he is an integral part of, is well on its way to achieving that target.
Orson Picart
Orson Picart, Representative, Aspire for Greatness Foundation
“So we started on June seventh, and our intention was to acquire finances to the tune of some two thousand dollars to purchase three hundred backpacks for our back to school drive. Since then, we have been going at it in terms of sending out letters to potential donors, doing social media promotions in terms of getting the information out and to get people onboard. It has been hard and I think that has to do with the global pandemic and the financial impacts that it has on Belize. Luckily for us, once it was that I had a conversation or several conversations with Mr. Alamilla, he was receptive to assisting us in terms of offering us some support in terms of getting the required amount of bags that we needed and so for that we are grateful to the Stationery House and his staff.”
The distribution of the school bags commences in mid-August.
Orson Picart
“Earlier this week, we also got a contribution of fifty knapsacks from the Port of Belize Ltd., from the human resources department there. They gifted us that and for that we are grateful as well, so thank you. Additionally, we are going to be distributing the knapsacks on August thirteenth during a summer camp in Queen Square Division. From there, on the fifteenth, we move to Port Loyola where we’re going to be at the basketball court on Jane Usher Boulevard to do other distributions and from there we move to the Yabra basketball court, I think that’s going to be on the seventeenth and eighteenth where we’re going to be distributing the rest of the school bags and so these students from single-parent households will have a knapsack, but not only a knapsack, it lends to their education and it will also assist their parents in terms of having one less thing to worry about for back to school.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
