With the first day of school rapidly approaching volunteers at Chatham's United Way started filling up backpacks with school supplies for local children.
Operation backpack is a program that gives parents a helping hand in providing backpacks and school supplies for their children.
On Monday about 30 volunteers gathered at United Way, forming an assembly line to fill backpacks with supplies - all of which had been donated.
Coordinator Mary Symons says she`s proud to live in a community where everyone is so willing to help.
"The number of donations we've received, the number of volunteers that have stepped up to make sure that there's enough help to have this program succeed has just been phenomenal ," says Symons. "Operation backpack in itself will facilitate 80 plus volunteers upon completion so it's fantastic."
Symons says they'll be handing out just over 1,200 backpack this year, a slight decrease from last year's 1,320 backpacks.
Just one of the halls filled with donated backpacks for kids in Chatham-Kent pic.twitter.com/oPrlZZGOW0
— Natalia Vega (@Natalia94V) August 29, 2016
Volunteer Sharon Roberts joined the planning committee this year as a representative from Union Gas. She says the overall experience has been great.
"It's been really busy but really rewarding," says Roberts. "It's nice to see [people] helping out in the community."
