UPDATE: Another round of Friday afternoon backpacks were packed up and delivered by Michael Silver & Company CPAs to the Morton Grove/Skokie School District 69 over the Veterans Day Weekend.
Due to the amazing generosity of MSCO partners and employees, we had enough donations to contribute again! A special thanks to everyone who shopped, and hauled, and organized, and packed. We could not have accomplished this without everyone’s contributions and help. Also, special kudos go to our colleague, Audit Manager, Pauline Perrone, for suggesting this great idea!
Susan Waterloo, Tax Manager, who served as primary organizer of this community-spirited initiative
At a recent local community event, District 69 School Superintendent Quintin Shepherd enthusiastically reaffirmed his appreciation for the backpacks and the joy they bring to the school children. We’ve posted some new photos here that capture some of the fun and excitement of the BackPack assembly line! Enjoy!
Following on the success of “Hunger Awareness Day” in April, in support of the Niles Township Food Pantry, the staff of Michael Silver & Company CPAs continued its community-focused enthusiasm by supporting children within Morton Grove/Skokie’s School District 69. According to District Superintendent Dr. Quintin Shepherd, there is a group of children that leave school on Friday afternoons and face the reality of having little or no food until they return to the classroom on Monday morning. In response to this, Michael Silver & Company eagerly got to work with the School District to coordinate the Friday Afternoon Backpacks (FABs) initiative that everyone hoped would help curb this weekend hunger challenge.
This was the first time that such an undertaking took place between the school district and businesses in the area. While the school provided the backpacks, Michael Silver & Company did the rest!
Not only did we have several people take the time to consider the best variety of foods that the children and their families would enjoy, many actually headed out to the stores to purchase the food and drinks. We also raised additional cash contributions, which resulted in participation in excess of $1,000! Additionally, Produce World in Skokie contributed fruit to the abundance of food items that we collected.
Beryl Reid, Partner and sponsor of Michael Silver & Company’s community and charitable activities
Beryl continued, “Our first contribution of 30 backpacks, overflowing with healthy food and drinks, were delivered to the School District the Friday before the Labor Day weekend. That same afternoon, we were thrilled to receive an emailed video thank you from Dr. Shepherd.
[The backpacks were] a tremendous success…everything went exactly as we had planned and designed, and I could see the looks on the faces of the kids — they were excited to get the backpacks! By every single measure, this was a phenomenal success – thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart, on behalf the board of education, on behalf of the students, and on behalf of the school district, thank you…you guys have done an amazing thing, and I am greatly appreciative of your efforts.
Quintin Shepherd, District 69 School Superintendent
We are targeting to fill backpacks for the students again in the late Fall.