BackPack Beginnings wouldn’t be what it is today without the support of our amazing volunteers. We are a 100% volunteer organization and our volunteers are the key to helping us achieve our mission.
We would like to take the time this week to recognize one of BPB’s extremely dedicated and hardworking former volunteers: Sarah Bentley, who recently left us to attend graduate school in Virginia. Sarah got involved with BackPack Beginnings back in 2012, when she heard about us through her job at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in High Point.
Sarah first began with BackPack Beginnings as a delivery volunteer in 2012 and then moved on to become the chair for the Food BackPack Program in High Point. She served in this position for three years where she acted as the liaison between High Point’s 40 delivery volunteers and 10 area schools. Sarah received weekly updates from the schools (i.e. how many bags of food were needed) and shared this information with the delivery volunteers to ensure that the food was delivered to the schools every Thursday. Of the role, Sarah says, “I am proud I was able to serve as Food BackPack Chair for so long. This consistency strengthened the relationship between High Point schools and BPB.”
“At the beginning of each year I met with school contacts who were new to the program or needed updated information. I was always humbled by the amount of work social workers and Communities in Schools professionals have on their plates. These individuals are working tirelessly to support public schools and their students.”
The 2015-2016 school year was Sarah’s last with BackPack beginnings as she recently moved to Alexandria, Virginia to begin graduate school in the Master in Divinity program at Virginia Theological Seminary. While we miss Sarah greatly here at BPB, we are so proud of all that she accomplished during her time volunteering for us and we couldn’t be more excited for her new adventure and what’s to come! She says “her hope after seminary is to have renewed energy and wisdom for nurturing spiritual development in children.”
BPB is a beacon of light in a sometimes dark world. From one person with an idea (and a lot of hard work) has sprung a magnificent organization that feeds and comforts the most needy of our community, children. It was truly a blessing for me to be part of this movement and to work with volunteers from all walks of life who are selflessly giving of their time, energy, and money to others.”
When asked about her favorite memories from volunteering with BackPack Beginnings, Sarah says, ” I loved when the leadership team got together to brainstorm better ways to serve the children in our community. I love the memories I have of sitting around a table debriefing about the programs and adjusting our procedures. I am an organizational nerd that way. I also loved having the opportunity to organize a large food packing event for eight church youth groups. It was amazing to get to share this organization that I believe in so much with 200 middle and high school students.”
Sarah – thank you for dedicating your time and energy to BackPack Beginnings for so many years – we truly can’t thank you enough! We wish you the best of luck!
If you would like to become a BackPack Beginnings volunteer, please visit our volunteer page. Want to host a food drive or make a donation? Your donations will allow us to serve more children in need. Thank you!
Written on 11/3/16 by Michele Slaine.
