Hopelink, the largest social services agency serving East and North King County, is collecting school supplies until Aug. 18 to distribute to low-income schoolchildren, as part of its annual Kids Need School Supplies drive. Thanks to local donors – companies, service organizations and individuals – Hopelink will supply backpacks and supplies to schoolchildren who, without help, would not have the tools their schools require them to have in order to complete their schoolwork.

The drive is collecting monetary donations as well as backpacks, dictionaries, calculators, notebooks, binder paper in college- and wide-ruled sizes, rulers, pencil boxes or pouches, pens, pencils, markers, binders and tab dividers for three-ring binders, among other supplies, for local low-income kids.

The school supplies will be distributed in late August through Hopelink’s six food bank locations (Shoreline, Northshore, Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond and Sno-Valley).

Hopelink Center Manager Teresa Andrade is spearheading the project and said it’s impossible to overstate its importance. “We’re talking about supplying essential tools to children for whom education means everything, including a way out of the poverty cycle,” Andrade said. “The children are thrilled to receive the supplies, because it means they can better fit in with their classmates and be confident they’ll have what they need to get their work done.”

“Most of us grow up with pencils, paper, art supplies, dictionaries and such at home, so we take those things for granted, but that’s definitely not the case for the children in the families that Hopelink serves,” Ms. Andrade added. Hopelink is in particular need of pencil pouches or boxes, rulers, calculators, markers, backpacks for high school students, tab dividers to go in three-ring binders, and lined binder paper, both wide-ruled and college-ruled. To make a donation of supplies or cash that Hopelink will use to purchase needed items, call (425) 869-6000 or go to www.hope-link.org. Donations may be made in person at any of Hopelink’s centers in Shoreline, Northshore (Bothell), Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond or Sno-Valley (Carnation). Location addresses can be found on Hopelink’s website.

For more information, contact Teresa Andrade at (425) 485-6521 or teresawa@hope-link.org, or visit www.hope-link.org.