If you follow along on my social accounts, you may have caught a glimpse of our adventures in the Toyota Camry SXE this past week. While the car is super luxurious, and arrived to us fully loaded with every feature you could possibly imagine, we were honestly more excited about where it would take us! We were on a mission to help outfit children in need, with all of the tools and necessities required for a successful school year.
When Toyota asked me to jump on board with their partnership with Operation Backpack, I didn't need to give it a second thought!
Children are the future. We must invest in younger generations wisely; it's essential. What will the future look like, if we don't? So, I set off with my older children to put my frugal ninja shopping skills to good use! We also kicked in some of our own funding in addition to the budget provided by Toyota, because it's such a worthy cause.
We found most of the school supplies at Walmart. The deals to be had this time of year are A M A Z I N G, so we were able to grab a ton! Next we stopped at Target for a few items that we couldn't find at Walmart. We completed the shopping spree at Five Below, where we found a H U G E selection of pretty great backpacks, for just $5 each! Who knew?! I never knew that they sold backpacks, but I was so grateful to have found a store that carried quality bags, at such a reasonable price point. Our finds at Five Below definitely enabled us to maximize our budget, and help more children!
In total, we were able to stuff 50 backpacks for children in need. Each pack was stuffed with supplies from the grade appropriate supply lists, available on the VOA website. Some children need items such as watercolors, protractors, graphing paper, etc. Needs are different and vary by grade level. so be sure to check the website before you head out to the store.
We dropped the stocked backpacks off at our local VOA, and they will be distributing them to kids in need, in our local area. It feels so good knowing that so many deserving children will have a great start to their year {and in life}, because of such a simple gift.
If you have it in your budget to help, whether it's 1 or 2 stocked backpacks, or maybe even some school supplies; every little bit helps! You can fully stock a brand new backpack for under $10 (if you pick up the backpack at Five Below for $5 each).
Visit http://www.voa.org/operationbackpack to learn more about you can donate to Operation Backpack.
Keep an eye out for our full review, and video walk-around of the 2015 Toyota Camry SXE - it's pretty fabulous!
