Pokagon United Methodist Church fills 25 backpacks a week with food to feed Patrick Hamilton Elementary School students in Dowagiac during the school year.PUMC’s backpack ministry began last spring through elementary counselor Lisa Armijo, Shari Bradke said Wednesday evening as the Youth Adventure pre-teen K-7 group demonstrates how their assembly line works for replenishing the washable blue bags, which they then pray over.
“It costs $6 a backpack,” Bradke said. “We deliver the backpacks on Friday so they can take them home” over the weekends. “They bring them back on Monday, or sometimes it’s Tuesday or Wednesday. We haven’t not gotten a backpack back yet.”
Bradke said, “We work through the counselor. She’s the one who gave us the names of the kids. There are approximately 200 kids in the Dowagiac school system who could use backpacks,” which is why PUMC plans a holiday bazaar fundraiser for the ministry Nov. 12 at Dowagiac Lions Club.
“We’re trying to contact other churches and organizations to see if they would give us donations, or if they would take on a backpack program so more kids can be fed,” said Bradke, who can be contacted at (574) 309-0260.
www.dowagiacnews.com/2011/08/17/pokagon-umc-fills-25-backpacks-a-week/
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