From Sharon McGinnis Girdlestone:

There are 650 homeless students in the Mount Diablo School District, just a few miles from us. I find this heart-wrenching and want to help. I am working with local non-profits, White Pony Express, All Good Livings, and the Sydney Paige Foundation, as well as the Mount Diablo School District, to ensure these kids get all of the hygiene items they need.

Many of us have put effort into helping and have donated items, including a parent who donated 1,500 body washes and lotions, THANK YOU! I’m now running this drive to fill in the rest of the items needed.

At a time & place TBD, we will also hold a ‘pack-out party’ to put all items into backpacks. Bring your kids to help assemble kits, create notes of encouragement, and have a blast giving back together as a community! Details to come.

Please sponsor as many items as you can so that we can not only provide full kits to all 650 homeless students, but also help them feel loved, cared for, and BELIEVED in! They are up against all odds right now. I hope you’ll join me in being a beacon of light in their lives.

Thank you so much for your support!

Sharon

*Sydney Paige is a 501c3 non-profit, so all donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Please help us carry on Calder's legacy of giving back at our House of Awesome 3 event on June 6th. Our goal is to pack out and donate 2,500 backpacks full of school supplies for homeless, foster, and disadvantaged children in Los Angeles!

We will be donating items to these children through the wonderful non-profit, School on Wheels (https://schoolonwheels.org).

Please help us send 2,500+ underserved youth back to school in the Fall of 2019 with brand new, high quality backpacks and school supplies so that they have the tools and confidence they need to learn and thrive in school!

About Caleb & Calder Sloan's Awesome Foundation

On April 13, 2014, the parents of Calder Jacob Sloan kissed their son goodbye for the last time. Just a week after his 7th birthday, Calder was electrocuted and killed instantly in his backyard pool.

With an unfathomable amount of pain, the Sloans were surrounded by an immense amount of love and support from family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers. Instead of letting their son's death destroy them, they decided to dedicate themselves to carry on Calder's impact of helping others.

Calder's mantra was Adventure. Laughter. Kindness. He was so full of life and had so many incredible traits that he could only be summed up as AWESOME. With his nickname "Mr. Awesome", Calder sought out any opportunity to live life to the fullest and help others.

In both of their sons' names, the Sloans founded The Caleb and Calder Sloan's Awesome Foundation with a focus on helping disadvantaged children and empowering kids to pay it forward themselves. With their son's self-portrait drawing as their logo, they have inspired and built a community of kindness and giving back across the world.

Get out your tissue and big 'ole smiles and watch their video above.

On June 26th, bring your children to pack new backpacks with school supplies for kids in need. This is a great opportunity to get your children involved in giving back. We hope you will join us in helping kids have a great start for the 2019/20 school year.

We are excited to have Mindful Littles facilitating an awesome giving program, filled with storytelling, mindfulness activity and a creative service project for participants!

It is our goal to donate 100 backpack + school supply kits to kids in need in our local communities.

A frantic “Where’s my backpack??” is a familiar phrase to any parent trying to get children out the door to school in the morning. What is a backpack? Sure, we know the answer to that question. A bag filled with pencils, pens, paper, and a binder. That is the usual answer, but a backpack to our clients’ children means so much more. It means that they are ready for school and will be prepared with some of the most critical items needed. A backpack is absolute preparedness and organization. It says “I am here, count me in!”

But what happens to our children who attend class totally unprepared? They feel embarrassed, out of place and totally left out. Without the correct tools to begin with, they are behind from the start. We need to encourage our children to succeed by giving them the right tools. Through Project Ready-to-Learn, children are provided with a backpack full of needed supplies according to their grade level. It is critical to provide our children with these essential needs so that they can succeed in life.

A backpack expresses and reflects the child’s personality. A supervisor who handed out backpacks during our program last year, told us how the little children came in with smiles on their little faces, excited to know they would be able to pick out their own personal backpack. These children took their time, examining all their choices before making the big decision. Once they made a decision, they walk out of the office, proud, happy, and ready for school!

Please support children's education & donate a backpack(s) and school supplies to make a child feel excited and ready for school! Remember that the children are our future – let’s help them make their futures bright by investing in them today. Thank you for your support!

Join Ur Esteem as we labor in love for our 1st Annual Backpack Drive. Each backpack will be donated in the local community to support student learning. It is our goal to provide 50 backpacks to students in need and are partnering with Sydney Paige to make this happen.

Ur Esteem was birthed out of passion and determination to discover love from the inside out. Sydney Paige is passionate about giving underserved youth the tools and confidence needed to learn and thrive in school.

Please sponsor a backpack to help us send local youth back to school excited to learn and prepared to succeed!

Thank you!!

~ Demene

*Note: all donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law, so save your receipts! 501c3 non-profit Sydney Paige 83-2089156.

Please help the Sydney Paige Foundation help Sarah Coughlin Elementary School make sure that each and every student has the supplies they need to do their homework and keep up in school all year! 

Sarah Coughlin Elementary School is an amazing elementary school with hardworking teachers, students and parents. Schools like Sarah Coughlin, that are in less privileged areas of Los Angeles, do manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. But it’s when the students get home that the they really struggle. Many of the elementary school students that we help live below the poverty level. Most of the basic items that we take for granted every day are out of reach for these young students. We know that simple supplies, like a pencil, paper or crayons, can make the difference between a student doing their homework and failing. No student should feel like they won’t succeed in school because they don’t have an eraser, a pencil or a backpack. 

By giving every student from Pre-Kindergarten - 5th grade a backpack full of homework supplies, we let them know that they can be the kind of student they want to be. Please donate today and help us help all 800 students at Sarah Coughlin Elementary School be ready to learn on the first day of school 2019! 

Ticket to Dream works to ensure foster kids enter the school year with the school supplies they need to keep up in the classroom.

With over 200,000 school-aged children in foster care, we need your help to bring back to school excitement to thousands of foster kids.

Did you know? 1 child enters foster care every 2 minutes, often with very few possessions of their own? Once in care, the average child experiences 3 home changes and loses up to 6 months of academic progress with each move. Already facing an uphill academic battle, the last thing these children should be worried about is starting the new school year without the fundamental tools to do their work.

By purchasing the back to school supplies below, you are ensuring a foster youth has what they need to keep up in school, while boosting their confidence with the knowledge that they won’t need to borrow items or negatively stand out from their peers.

Want to get your company, church or club involved by hosting a backpack build for 50-1,000 youth? Ticket to Dream and Sydney Paige are here to make it happen just reach out to info@tickettodream.org.

Please help the Sydney Paige Foundation help Haddon Avenue STEAM Academy and Magnet make sure that each and every student has the supplies they need to do their homework and keep up in school all year! 

Haddon is an amazing elementary school with hardworking teachers, students and parents. Schools like Haddon, that are in less privileged areas of Los Angeles, do manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. But it’s when the students get home that they really struggle. Many of the elementary school students that we help live below the poverty level. Most of the basic items that we take for granted every day are out of reach for these young students. We know that simple supplies, like a pencil, paper or crayons, can make the difference between a student doing their homework and failing. 

By giving every student from Pre-Kindergarten - 5th grade a backpack full of homework supplies, we let them know that they can be the kind of student they want to be. Please donate today and help us help all 890 students at Haddon be ready to learn on the first day of school 2019! 

Please help the Sydney Paige Foundation help Rosa Parks Learning Center make sure that each and every student has the supplies they need to do their homework and keep up in school all year! 

Rosa Parks Learning Center is an amazing elementary school with hardworking teachers, students and parents. Schools like Rosa Parks, that are in less privileged areas of Los Angeles, do manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. But it’s when the students get home that the they really struggle. Many of the elementary school students that we help live below the poverty level. Most of the basic items that we take for granted every day are out of reach for these young students. We know that simple supplies, like a pencil, paper or crayons, can make the difference between a student doing their homework and failing. No student should feel like they won’t succeed in school because they don’t have an eraser, a pencil or a backpack. 

By giving every student from Pre-Kindergarten - 5th grade a backpack full of homework supplies, we let them know that they can be the kind of student that they want to be. Please donate today and help us help all 835 students at Rosa Parks Learning Center be ready to learn on the first day of school 2019! 

Please help the Sydney Paige Foundation help Canoga Park Elementary School make sure that each and every student has the supplies they need to do their homework and keep up in school all year! 

Thanks to the hard working teachers and staff, schools like Canoga Park (that are in less privileged areas of Los Angeles) do manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. But most times, those supplies are not allowed to leave the school, so it’s when the students get home that they really struggle. Most of the elementary school students that we help live below the poverty level. The most basic items that we take for granted every day are out of reach for these young students. We know that the most basic supplies, like a pencil, paper or crayons, can make the difference between a student doing their homework and failing.

By giving every student from Pre-Kindergarten - 5th grade a backpack full of homework supplies, we let them know that they can be the kind of student they want to be and never have to worry about feeling like they failed just because they didn’t have the tools to do their homework. 

Please donate today and help us help >600 students at Canoga Park have the tools they need to succeed in their 2019-2020 School Year!   THANK YOU!!   

Please help the Sydney Paige Foundation help Telfair Elementary School make sure that each and every student has the supplies they need to do their homework and keep up in school all year! 

Telfair Elementary  is an amazing school with hardworking teachers, students and parents. Schools like Telfair, that are in less privileged areas of Los Angeles, do manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. But it’s when the students get home that the they really struggle. Many of the elementary school students that we help live below the poverty level and in fact, many of the students at Telfair are homeless. Most of the basic items that we take for granted everyday are out of reach for these young students. We know that simple supplies, like a pencil, paper or crayons, can make the difference between students doing their homework and failing. 

By giving every student from Pre-Kindergarten - 5th grade a brand new backpack full of homework supplies, we let them know that they can be the kind of student they want to be. Please donate today and help us help all 810 students at Telfair be ready to learn on the first day of school 2019! 

Thank you!

Please help us provide those in need with FULL SETS of hygiene supplies in a safe and discrete way by packing them into fantastic looking backpacks that will hold all of these items and more!

By providing full size items, donations can be used throughout the season vs. simply as a one-time use. This way, we are not only able to reduce waste, but also empower dignity and confidence all season long!!

But we can't do it without you! We've secured awesome products at rock-bottom pricing that we're dying to get into the hands of those we are so fortunate to be able to help. Please donate where you can, or start a team drive of your own. To get set up and if you'd like to schedule your own pack-out event, contact Danie Belfield, Director of Volunteer Services at danie@whiteponyexpress.org.

Thank You!!!