On Thursday, August 9, United Way hosted Action Day at the Target Center. Volunteers could sign up online in advance or show up at the door to participate in packing backpacks for kids in need.
MNUFC staff were on hand as Volunteer Staff, guiding volunteers through the assembly line of supplies and backpacks. The Minnesota Twins, Timberwolves, Lynx, Wild, Vikings and St. Paul Saints were all in attendance as well to volunteer their time and help achieve the goal of packing 25,000 backpacks.
“Every year more than 100,000 local kids don’t have the school supplies they need.”
The backpacks were filled with all the essential supplies for students as they head back to school. Backpacks specific to K–6th grade students were filled with glue sticks, crayons, markers, erasers, notebooks and more. Middle school and high school specific bags were filled with notebooks, pencils, pens, USB drives and more to prepare them for the school year.
United Way understands the importance of a quality education for students. Having adequate school supplies is a way to ensure that students’ school year is off to a great start. All 25,000 backpacks will be distributed to 50 different Twin Cities non-profits and donated to kids in the community. Many members of these non-profits were up on the concourse at Action Day, providing information to all the volunteers about their work and helping pack the backpacks.
In just five hours, all 25,000 backpacks were packed full with supplies for the kids. United Way and volunteers more than doubled the number of backpacks packed from last year (12,000) to this year (25,000). It was an honor to join members of the community and the other Minnesota sports franchises to participate in Action Day 18!
