Our Impact and Partnerships Are Making The Headlines
Thank you to our friends at National Louis University for inviting us to be interviewed on Daytime Chicago on Monday, July 22nd. What an exciting partnership! National Louis University and Back 2 School America are teaming up in what will surely bring many benefits to educators, parents, and students. Stay tuned as further information related to this new collaboration is released!
Pictured L-R: Tonya Francisco (WGN), Dr. Ruth Davis (National Louis University), Bernadette Shanahan-Haas (Back 2 School America), and Amy Rutledge (WGN).
Welcome, Siobhan Clancy!
We are thrilled to welcome Siobhan Clancy to the Back 2 School America team. In this newly developed role, she will serve as the Director of Special Events and Logistics. Siobhan comes to the table with extensive experience in driving organizational growth through event planning and strategic partnership management. Her previous roles as a National Sales Director and as a National Strategic Partnerships Manager provide her with an extensive background to support our planned growth across the country.
I am thrilled to be joining Back 2 School America. I look forward to applying my background to contribute to our expansion and growth, creating impactful events and building strong partnerships that drive our mission forward, ensuring every child has the tools they need to succeed.
– Siobhan Clancy
Volunteers Needed for Our Big Annual Back 2 School America
Event on August 2
Our most impactful event of the year will be here again, and we need your help to make it a success. Volunteers are needed for a day filled with hope, generosity, and community spirit as we come together to support children and families in need.
We are excited to share that we have been able to organize an effort to cast a wider net this year. Rather than having one distribution event, we have organized a large-scale pick up of kits that will be distributed at YMCA’s across the city on August 2nd.
By lending a hand, you can help us achieve our goal of providing thousands of Chicagoland students, from kindergarten through high school, with the tools they need to start the school year with confidence and enthusiasm. This year, we’ve expanded our partnership with the YMCA of Greater Chicago to reach even more children. This collaboration aims to ensure that underserved kids are equipped with new school supplies on their first day of school.
VOLUNTEER NOW
This has changed our need for volunteer windows to 9am-11am and 11am-2pm. If you are scheduled for an earlier or later shift, we hope that you will be able to join us at one of the new times. We will not be hosting a Build-A-Kit experience due to the fact that we are focused on this wider distribution effort.
Please note that the need for volunteers on August 2nd will primarily consist of working with us to group cartons of pre-built kits for planned YMCA pickups. This will require frequent bending and lifting of boxes. We encourage you to wear comfortable shoes and to bring a reusable water bottle.
Another Triumph for Kids: A Real Estate Build-A-Kit To Remember
For several years, a diverse array of companies and employees involved in the real estate sector throughout greater Chicago—including architects, brokers, builders, banks, developers, and more—have joined forces to ensure local students gear up successfully when they go back to school. Held annually in July, the Chicagoland Real Estate Build-A-Kit event serves as a vital resource for students and families in need of essential school supplies.
We are fortunate to have the YMCA of Metro Chicago as our valued partner. The Rauner Family YMCA location was the main venue for our event where employee volunteers from each respective sponsor built more than 1,500 kits. Their collective efforts demonstrated a strong commitment to benefit those schoolchildren affiliated with the Rauner “Y.”
A special thank-you to all of our sponsors who not only donated money toward school supplies but also brought their teams to volunteer! @belgraviagroup @brookfieldassetmanagement @LincolnTitleCompany @fifieldco @tishmanspeyer @lg__group @MarisConstruction @wintrust Pioneer Engineer Consultancy and Contracting Company @morganharborconstruction @JCAnderson @RainbowLighting @ClarkConstruction KTGY Sullivan, Goulette & Wilson Ltd. Architects
Target Selects Back 2 School America as a Featured Nonprofit
We are excited to report that Target has announced that Back 2 School America has been selected as one of the featured nonprofits in its Target Circle Community Giving Program. This partnership highlights Target’s commitment to supporting education and helping students across the nation start the school year with the supplies they need. The Target Circle Community Giving Program allows Target Circle members to earn and cast votes to help direct Target’s charitable giving among selected nonprofits.
How it works: As a Target Circle member, guests earn a vote for each Target trip they make. Guests can then use those votes to direct where funds go in support of nonprofits in their community and throughout the country. Once each voting period wraps up, Target awards grants to the nonprofits based on the percentage of votes they receive.
