BRHP 2026 Back to School Supply Drive: Preparing for a Year of Success

The cost of living is rapidly increasing.  

This doesn’t just affect home, grocery, and gas expenses; it can leave students without school necessities. In fact, the price of individual school supplies—even as small as a box of crayons— has become more expensive.  

BRHP participant Sherrell S. said she was stressed figuring out how she was going to afford school supplies for her two kids. She even considered working overtime to make sure her kids got what they needed.

“Without y’all, I didn’t know what I was gonna do,” Sherrell said. “Y’all came through.”

For over half a decade, we have held our annual Back to School Supply Drive and served hundreds of households doing so. Here’s how we showed out for our families this year: 

-$2,710 raised from donors and partners  
-Over 750 backpacks filled  
-Over 300 families served  
-Participants from all five BRHP service counties received bags 

After two months of preparation, we were able to pack, sort, and count the backpacks and supply kits for the BRHP students to be 100% set for the first day of school. 

The work was tiring, sometimes keeping our volunteers at the office after hours. During the workday, we created leaning towers of backpacks, lined up in even-numbered rows to ensure we didn’t lose count.  We created assembly lines to make sure every bag was getting the proper supplies for its age group. When it was time to transport the bags to our distribution locations, they were stacked from floor to ceiling in cars of all sizes. 

“It helped that the whole process was very well-organized for the volunteers,” said Emily Warren, BRHP’s project management supervisor.   

But the work was rewarding. Seeing the young students excited for school is what it’s all about. Knowing the financial burden of having to buy school supplies was taken off hundreds of families makes everything worth it. When the school bags arrived at our office, we had one small concern: the elementary school bags were almost all black. Apart from the neon-colored zippers and bag straps, they weren’t very colorful compared to previous years. With only a 2-week turnaround, we knew getting new bags would be extremely difficult. We thought of what we could do to add some fun to the elementary students’ backpacks. Then, we had it. 

Swag stations. 

Up until this August, the swag station has never been done before during the BRHP Supply Drive. Students who like accessories, pops of color, or trinkets can find buttons, patches, pins, stickers, and keychains to customize their bags.  

Everyone’s faces lit up at the sight of the seemingly endless pile of rainbow trinkets. These decoration stations, which were available at each distribution location, included like-new items donated by BRHP staff and other items that were purchased. In total, we had an estimated 1,000 accessories for students to choose from. 

Aside from the swag, participants could pick out a book. Unlike the accessories, the stock was much more limited. We gave out about 25 books per location, ranging from early learners to advanced readers.  

In the age of tablets and TikTok, reading books is vital. For future back to school distributions, increasing the number of books we give out and implementing book exchanges between families opens the opportunity to take multiple books home, not just one. After all, books are meant to be shared. 

Now that the drive is done, we want to look back on everyone who made this possible. Thank you to each and every one of our donors. Your contribution, no matter the size, made all the difference. A special thank you to Howard County’s Elkridge Branch Library, along with Baltimore County’s White Marsh Branch and Catonsville Branch Libraries. You gave us the platform to execute our plan. 

Thank you to our more than 15 BRHP volunteers who packed each individual backpack, stuffed their cars with bags from the trunk to the passenger seat, and most importantly, did it all with joy. Without you, this would have been impossible.  

Lastly, but certainly not least, we’d like to thank all of our participants. If it weren’t for your trust in BRHP, we wouldn’t be here. You keep us pushing forward, and your dedication to your children’s future gives us momentum to strive every single day. 

Written by: Morgan Lane, Communications and Special Projects Intern