2024 Backpack Drive
Help the Karsh Center Community Get Ready for School!
Help Young Students Get Ready for Kindergarten with the Karsh Center’s Backpack Drive!
The Karsh Center’s annual Ready for Kindergarten event is designed to inspire excitement and readiness in children ages 4-5 as they prepare for their first school experience. This special event provides kids and their families with opportunities to participate in fun arts and crafts, learn about valuable community resources, take their first school photo, and—most importantly—choose their very own backpack to kick off their educational journey.
From June 3 to July 26, we are hosting a backpack drive to collect new backpacks for 200 preschoolers and kindergarteners in our community. Your contribution helps ensure that these young students start school equipped and confident. Thank you for helping to provide a strong foundation for the youngest members of our community as they embark on their educational paths!
There are two ways to support this drive:
- Purchase one of our requested backpacks directly from our Amazon Wishlist to be sent directly to the Karsh Center (606 S Hobart Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90020).
- Purchase a new backpack on your own, and mail or drop it off directly at the Karsh Center during our hours of operations. We specifically need:
- 12″ backpacks for our youngest students
If you are planning to drop off, there will be marked boxes for backpack donation by the door to the Karsh Center. Please make sure to include a completed in-kind donation form inside the backpack if you would like a tax receipt.
If you are not a member of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, please email Development Associate Katie Henoch (katie@karshcenter.org) to coordinate your dropoff time (so your name will be added to a list of approved visitors for our security).
We will pack these full of other goodies for students as part of this program, so please do not include any other school supply items inside the bags. If you are interested in donating other new school supplies, we will happily accept those donations in a separate bag!
Thank you for helping students get Ready for Kindergarten!
Important Information About Substantiations of Charitable Contributions
In order to receive a thank-you note or tax receipt for an item purchased online and delivered directly to us, please make sure to fill out your contact information, including your name and email address, on the gift receipt for your donated backpack(s).
If you are planning to drop off a backpack directly to us at the Karsh Center, please complete this in-kind donation form, and place it inside the backpack you donate. We must receive this form with the item you donate, and will remove and process it for donation acknowledgement before distributing your donated backpack to a student.
Substantiations of charitable contribution will be sent at the conclusion of the drive.
If you have any questions, please contact Associate Director of Development Madeleine Dile at madeleine@karshcenter.org for more details.