Friday, September 15, 2023
For the 10th year, The Salvation Army, WISN-TV, and the station’s viewers have teamed up to supply backpacks to students. In all, 1,400 students from seven MPS schools are receiving backpacks through the Class Act School Supply Drive.
Two hundred of those backpacks were given out at Bryant Elementary School on Friday. The presentation included Salvation Army Major Beverly Gates, Divisional Secretary for the Milwaukee Area Command; Sheree Dallas Branch, Assistant Divisional Director of Development for the Salvation Army; and Ben Lorber, Director of Programming and Public Affairs for WISN.
Representing Milwaukee Public Schools were Superintendent Dr. Keith P. Posley; Dr. Toni Dinkins, the Regional Superintendent of Schools for the Central Region; Marva Herndon, President of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors and District 1 representative; Christy Stone, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Customer Service; and Tiffaney Hollowell, Principal of Bryant Elementary School.
“Community engagement efforts like this directly support the positive experiences of our students,” Hollowell said.
Friday morning’s presentation took place in the Bryant library. The school is at 8718 W. Thurston Avenue.
The six other MPS schools that received backpacks for their students were Browning, Barton, Hawley Environmental, Kagel, Riley, and Siefert. The schools receiving backpacks change yearly.
Included inside the backpacks were pens, pencils, paper, notepads, and other school supplies.
This year’s campaign raised $55,451, buying more than 2,200 filled backpacks. The remaining backpacks are distributed in Waukesha schools. For the drive, WISN viewers made donations online, through text messages, and during an on-air phone bank at WISN.
In all, more than $500,000 has been collected to benefit Milwaukee-area students since the campaign first was launched 10 years ago.