Central Community Foundation provided Altrusa with a grant to help supply local primary and secondary students with backpacks filled with school supplies and books. 

This will be the first year the backpack program will include books, which the $1,500 grant will help provide. The grant will assist in purchasing 1,000 age-appropriate books for students and is typically distributed at a local elementary school in mid to late July. 

“We strongly feel that reading is a much-needed skill to succeed in the world,” said Barbara Dobson, Altrusa Backpack Buddies Chair. “We realize that not all children have books to call their own.”

The Central Community Foundation provides grants through the Operation Round Up program at Central Rural Electric Cooperative. Members of CREC can round up their monthly electric bills to the nearest dollar to help organizations and residents in need throughout Central’s seven-county service area.