A Gift For Teaching delivers supplies to Walker Middle ahead of next school year

21,000 backpacks prepared at ‘The Great Big Backpack Build’

ORLANDO, Fla. – Workers with A Gift For Teaching are helping students over the summer break.

News 6 on Tuesday joined the nonprofit organization for its annual “The Great Big Backpack Build” event at the Orange County Convention Center.

Hundreds of volunteers filled more than 21,000 backpacks with school supplies.

“It’s absolutely important to us, you know, thinking about all the children that are going to start their first day with everything that they need,” said Susan Montanez, of Wells Fargo said.

Eight-hundred of the 21,000 bags were delivered to Walker Middle School.

“We have a high population of students who are homeless, so we do have great need at our school,” Principal Kristi Brown said.

Even though it’s June, the work to prepare for the new school year is already underway.

“We start work right when school ends. We try to get it going and that the students have the resources that they need so we certainly appreciate the A Gift for Teaching team and the backpacks for our students here at Walker Middle,” OCPS Chief Communications Officer Scott Howat said.

A Gift For Teaching will continue making more backpack deliveries throughout the summer to schools in Orange and Osceola counties.


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About the Author

Ezzy Castro is a multimedia journalist on News 6's morning team who has a passion for telling the stories of the people in the Central Florida community. Ezzy worked at WFOR CBS4 in South Florida and KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, where she covered Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Being from Miami, Ezzy loves Cuban coffee and croquetas!

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