2025 School Supply Drive wrap up

For the 12th year in a row, the Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference School Supply Committee led a summer project to help local students start the year prepared for school by providing backpacks and vital supplies. In 2024, 6.5 percent of children were living in poverty in El Dorado County, so they knew the need was urgent.

The youth-led School Supply Drive Committee began by working with local businesses from Folsom to Placerville to host collection bins. Next, they coordinated with El Dorado Hills Town Center and El Dorado County Office of Education to host a "Stuff the Bus" event on July 18. The marketing committee and a KCRA 3 interview got the word out and our community responded! Generous shoppers and organizations like churches and clubs dropped off mountains of supplies, and the returned collection bins filled the bus! Cash and online donations, plus generous shoppers from their wish list, allowed for all item goals to be met, and many were exceeded.

This year's committee included six subcommittee youth chairs, ten youth participants, one adult mentor volunteer, and two staff mentors, and was led by a Hands4Hope alumni/college intern. In all, 60 volunteers served more than 110 times and logged over 300 hours to plan, collect, sort, and distribute school supplies. All in all, the 2025 youth-led committee collected 18,000 items, including 908 backpacks, with an estimated value of $66,800. Combined with previous donations, the youth-led committee of 16 planned and coordinated the collection, sorting, organization, and then distribution of nearly 29,000 vital school supplies and backpacks.

School supply requests were referral-only, and accessed through our partner agencies, such as the McKinney-Vento Services for the El Dorado Office of Education, CASA, New Morning Youth and Family Services, and Headstart, among others. About one quarter of this year’s registrants were new to the program! Families with students in all grades were welcomed on August 5 at Louisiana Schnell Elementary School in Placerville, who once again hosted this effort.

During the 4-hour distribution event, Hands4Hope youth participants led student guests through stations to "shop" for everything they need for school, from a new backpack to colored pencils, pens, folders, notebooks, crayons, and more. That day, 501 students received backpacks and supplies, including new kindergarteners through seniors in high school. Nearly 60 additional backpacks full of supplies were distributed in the days following the event through community partners and direct distribution, and remaining supplies continue to be requested and distributed through community partners and schools.

Thank you to ALL of the donors who came to the Stuff the Bus event, donated online, or brought items to collection sites. We are especially grateful to the local businesses and organizations who hosted Hands4Hope collection bins so donors had convenient locations to drop off backpacks and supplies. In house collection drives were another huge support. We couldn’t have made the impact we did without you!

Bin Collection Sites

Cameron Park/Shingle Springs

Faith Episcopal Church

Cameron Park Library

Snap Fitness, Shingle Springs

El Dorado Hills

Lyons Orthodontics

Big Apple Bagels

Snap Fitness 24-7

Minis House of Pain

Face in a Book

Datwyler Orthodontics

El Dorado Hills Library

ONYX Real Estate

Tutoring Rocks

Vintage Grace

Folsom

Folsom Lake Surf Soccer Club

Placerville

Edward Jones Insurance

Grado Construction

Thompson Toyota

Cappelli Wine

El Dorado Chamber of Commerce

SNAP Fitness Placerville

Robinsons Pharmacy

In-House Collection Drives

PG&E

Travelers Insurance, Rancho Cordova

Agilent Technologies

Horn Fulton Certified Public Accountants

Veerkamp Engineering 

El Dorado County Association Realtors Young Professional Network