Greg Coburn / news@whmi.com


Local families and students lined up at five local school districts to receive school supplies and backpacks.

The Livingston Educational Service Agency’s 21st annual Backpacks for Kids event took place yesterday. Each year, community members donate backpacks and basic school supplies to help families in Livingston County who are experiencing financial difficulties.

The cars line up and the backpacks are handed out on a first come first served basis at each of the local school districts. There are different size backpacks and many choices of color to accommodate all ages and preferences.

At Pinckney’s Pathfinder School Tanya Kramer, was first in line because it’s usually a long line, which it was. She has been coming to Backpacks for Kids for six years now. The kids will decide on which backpack once they see them based on either color or the theme on them.

Kramer said the kids are definitely excited about receiving their new backpacks. And, two out of three were excited about starting school again.

Rick Todd, Superintendent of Pinckney Community Schools was there helping out. He was assisting as needed such as grabbing additional backpacks from inside the school and supplies. Todd was as excited as the kids receiving the backpacks.

14 volunteers signed up for the event. 125 backpacks were out to start, with extra backpacks that could be brought out if needed.

Should they run out of backpacks, more would be provided to the kids that missed out through more donations from the community and local businesses. Those would be delivered to those families before the start of the school year which is on August 29th, the Monday before Labor Day.