Copper Country Angel Mission Receives Help from Camp Luther Students Stuffing Backpacks

The final days of summer vacation are a busy time for many families. Some might take a last-chance vacation away from home. While others might begin preparing for the upcoming school year. Each year the Copper Country Angel Mission has organized the annual backpack program to support students receiving the tools they need in the classroom. Last year the group helped supply items like pencils, crayons, rulers, and calculators to more than 100 students in the local area.

Throughout August CCAM has had volunteers from Camp Luther in Wisconsin help stuff backpacks donated by Walmart in Houghton.

I think for them it’s been eye-opening to see a free store in a sense of like, it’s kind of like goodwill, but like, they’re here to serve and volunteer and they’re super excited about it and you know at first they’re like a little scared, they don’t know what’s happening, but then we like to walk in and they start doing it and they’re really happy. and helping them reorganize things, and that was helpful for a lot of them.– Elliot Arvey, Impact Program Coordinator, Camp Luther Wisconsin

While collecting items the angel mission also collects monetary donations. Which has greatly helped to purchase more expensive items such as calculators.

We only give it to the sixth graders because we’re assuming the seventh and eighth graders will have theirs from sixth grade. So we’re aiming for twelve this year. If we could get twelve that would be a big help to us. Some of the other things that we noticed this morning that we ran out of when we were trying to fill the backpacks were school glue and sharp scissors. They became expensive this year, so we’ve gotten fewer of those. We could always use large and small markers because almost every child that we hear gets that as well. We’re also, along with the backpack program, allowing the families who get backpacks to come in on August 24th to pick out clean socks and clean underwear. So we are also asking for donations of both of those as well. – Lois Jambekar, Backpack Coordinator, Copper Country Angel Mission

The Angel Mission will continue to accept students into the backpack program until August 20th. After the deadline, students and parents can pick up a backpack from the Angel Mission’s Calumet location. Those interested in volunteering with the group to stuff backpacks or want to support the program with a donation for 2024 can find a full list of items here. Register for the program here. Learn more about the Copper Country Angel Mission here.