2026 School Supply Committee Helps Hundreds of Students

For the 13th 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, 29 percent of children were living in poverty in Placerville and Diamond Springs, so they knew the need was urgent.

The youth-led School Supply Drive Committee began by working with local businesses and organizations 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 17. The marketing committee 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 donations, plus generous online wish list shoppers, allowed for all item goals to be met, and many were exceeded. Significantly, a Costco grant submitted by the Placerville Union School District resulted in 800 backpacks given to our community.

This year's committee included seven subcommittee youth leaders, an additional eleven youth participants, one adult mentor volunteer, and one staff mentor. In all, 67 volunteers served more than 200 times and logged over 525 hours to plan, collect, sort, and distribute school supplies. The 2026 youth-led committee collected 17,000 items, with an estimated value of $68,400. Combined with previous donations, the youth-led committee of 20 planned and coordinated the collection, sorting, organization, and then distribution of more than 25,000 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, the Community Health Centers, the Boys and Girls Club of the Western Slope, and First 5 El Dorado, among others. About one third of this year’s registrants were new to the program, and two thirds came from Placerville and Diamond Springs. Families with students in all grades were welcomed on August 4 at Louisiana Schnell Elementary School in Placerville, who once again hosted this effort.

"I've learned that energy is such a big player in a successful event. The distribution day would not have been so successful if the volunteers weren't as energetic and fun as they were that day. They all had smiles on their faces and literally that day proved my point that smiles are contagious" - Ashna Vaikunthan, Project Manager

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, 476 students received backpacks and supplies, from new pre-schoolers through seniors in high school. More than 100 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.

"What I enjoyed most was the sense of community on the day of the event, when everyone stepped up and worked diligently together to reach our goal, and I got to talk with so many grateful families" - Anonymous, Committee Participant

We would like to thank Anthem Blue Cross for sponsoring our committee, Costco and the Peek Family Fund for supplies support, and 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!