Annual Backpacks giveaway returns to first-come, first-served format
COVINGTON, Ky. – Families from Covington (and elsewhere in Northern Kentucky) will be able to get free backpacks full of school supplies during a first-come, first-served event on Saturday, Aug. 10.
Northern Kentucky Harvest’s annual Backpacks Bonanza – formerly named Backpacks & Breakfast – will take place for the 24th straight year with a goal of giving away 1,125 backpacks.
City of Covington employees will help assemble and distribute the backpacks, which are for pre-school through 12th grade.
“We know the need for this project remains great because of the number of families that have sought our help in the past several years,” said Harvest board President Paul Gottbrath. “We’re responding with what could be our biggest give-away ever.”
The project – referred to by Harvest as Northern Kentucky’s largest and longest-running school readiness event – will take place from 9 a.m. to noon in the rear of the parking lot at St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s campus at 1500 James Simpson Jr. Way in Covington.
About 800 to 900 backpacks will be distributed that morning. Others will be shared ahead of time with low-income families working with community partners, including the Esperanza Latino Center, the ION Center and Welcome House, all in Covington, and Catholic Charities in Elsmere.
The project started modestly in 2001 with 150 backpacks and has grown steadily through the years. The 1,094 backpacks distributed in 2023 pushed the total for the project to more than 17,000.
The one-day distribution is a return to the format used for years before the start of the pandemic, when the first-come, first-served event was held at Covington’s Goebel Park. The last few years, Harvest had asked families to register ahead of time and recipients were determined by an on-line lottery.
This year, however, families do not have to register but only have to show up with a photo ID, proof of Northern Kentucky residence (such as a lease, recent bill), and proof that the children live with them (such as Social Security or medical cards).
The project is meant to help families already struggling to provide food, shelter and other basics better accommodate back-to-school costs.
But it also revs up students’ anticipation for the restart of classes. “You give a kid a new backpack, it’s amazing how that increases their excitement about the new school year,” Gottbrath said.
Financial support for Backpacks comes from, among others, the Butler Foundation, the R.C. Durr Foundation, the Covington Rotary Foundation, the Scripps Foundation, the Western & Southern Financial Fund, the SofaGives Charitable Fund, and St. Pius X Church in Edgewood. St. Timothy Church in Union and St. Joseph Church in Cold Spring are again doing school supply drives, and TJ Johnson State Farm Insurance in Wilder donated 50 backpacks.
“We couldn’t do this without all our generous sponsors, supporters, and partners,” Gottbrath said.
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For more information, contact Paul Gottbrath at (859) 750-2813 or paulgottbrath@gmail.com.
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