A parade of kids made their way around the tables inside the North Bergen Recreation Center on Tuesday, Sept. 2. They selected items from a vast array of supplies in preparation for the upcoming school year. And none of the kids paid a penny for the items.
The occasion was the first back-to-school drive for families in need, hosted by the North Bergen Emergency Relief Program. Free supplies were available to students of all ages, from kindergarten through high school.
The cornerstone of the drive was a $1,000 grant from Walmart that was used to buy many of the supplies. That was supplemented by collecting items around town from residents and businesses.
“I left bins at the uptown library, downtown library, town hall, police department, health department, parking authority,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator Aimee Focaraccio. “I had them at almost every official location throughout town. And every bin was completely full.”
“This is like an offshoot of what Aimee’s position is,” said Mayor Nicholas Sacco. “She does the fires and disaster type of donations and getting people clothing. This is the latest development in the program.”
One-stop shopping
North Bergen resident Ali Acosta showed up with four kids in tow: Shadaeh Acosta (age 12), Jahnel Acosta (10), Nahimah Beckham (7), and Sincere Beckham (5). Asked what she was looking for, Acosta laughed and replied, “Basically, anything that’s free.”
Sifting through school uniforms, picking out shirts and skirts, she said, “This is the first time they’re doing this so I’m taking very great advantage. Especially with a posse of kids, I need this.”
Ana Gomez was one of the volunteers helping to hand out items. “Some of the kids, the families are really needy,” she said. “You can tell. I’m so happy we can give this stuff away.”
A 20-year resident of North Bergen, Gomez frequently volunteers in order to give back to the community. At the back-to-school drive she spent the day handing out a variety of notebooks – different ones for different grades.
“We try to give the younger kids the little ones,” she said. “The older kids get the bigger notebooks and we give them loose paper and other things.”
With a $1,000 grant from Walmart and generous donations from residents, the back-to-school drive provided supplies and uniforms for school children of all ages.
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“I didn’t want to pre-make the bags,” said Focaraccio, referring to other school supply programs where kids file through and are handed identical packages, instead of selecting and assembling the items themselves. “Here they get to choose. ‘I want a red pen.’”
Margaret Garcia stopped by the Rec Center to pick up items for her seven-year-old granddaughter Deja. What was she looking for? “You know, I had no idea, so I had to ask. And they let me know. Obviously a uniform and some school supplies.”
Among the other items available were book bags and backpacks, pencils, folders, binders, erasers, rulers, and even snacks. “I’ve been here 15 years and I’ve never seen them do this,” said Garcia. “This is a really good thing.”
Getting started
Focaraccio came up with the idea after the Town of Secaucus reached out recently to provide neighboring municipalities with children’s bedding they acquired as part of their Fashion Delivers program to assist the needy.
Since she was contacting the schools anyway about the bedding, it occurred to Focaraccio that students could use school supplies. “I had a lot of uniforms left over from after the fire at 9201 [Kennedy Blvd.],” she said. “A lot of uniforms were donated after the fire so I had those in my trailer.”
Pitching the idea of a back-to-school drive to the mayor, she got his blessing and began collecting throughout August.
“Aimee’s got every connection you could think of,” said Department of Health and Social Services Director Janet Castro. “She knows every owner of every store that could donate.”
Among other things, residents donated used school uniforms, which were cleaned and recycled for new students.
Giving back
“We put it out for families in need, but it is really open to anybody, any resident of North Bergen,” said Focaraccio about the drive. “We were just trying to make sure that the families that needed it the most were able to get it.”
Rosemary Roque works for the North Bergen Health Department and volunteered to help out, along with her eight-year-old son Lenin Galarraga. The two of them greeted families at the door and checked proof of residency.
“We had about 30 different families so far that have arrived from all sorts of different areas of town,” said Roque at a little past noon. “There’s a lot of stuff here. Everybody is so pleased. They keep on saying how generous the town is.”
“It’s definitely helpful,” said Heather Cruz, shopping for supplies for her five-year-old daughter Tatiana. “Especially with her starting off in kindergarten.”
Accompanying Cruz was her brother Stephen and his son Max, a shy eight-year-old. On their way out the door with loaded backpacks, Cruz said, “We’re heading home to get uniforms, because they need more. Max has uniforms he doesn’t use anymore. It’s good for the kids to learn that what they give out, they get back a little bit.”
The event began at 11 a.m. and ran till 4 p.m. “The stuff that’s left over, I’m going to fill the backpacks and then reach out to all the schools to make sure that there’s stuff for the kids that didn’t know about it,” said Focaraccio. “I will have stuff stored, so if anybody after today reaches out to me I will still have stuff still available.”
Focaraccio can be reached through the mayor’s office.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.
SIDEBAR
“We already bought some school supplies,” said Amanda Johansen. “But the problem is you can only buy so much and then the school comes home with a list and they expect you to buy more stuff and it’s like, what can you do?”
One thing you could do if you were a resident of North Bergen, West New York, or Guttenberg was to stop by the sixth annual Back-to-School Backpack Program on Friday, Sept. 5 at the Robert Fulton School Annex. Sponsored by the Franciscan Community Development Center (FCDC), the program provided a wide variety of school supplies to residents at no charge.
“Kindergarten to 12 grade,” said FCDC Executive Director Sue Colacurcio, “we give free backpacks and school supplies. Whatever we receive, we give right back to the community.” Donations come from individuals and from corporate sponsors like Wells Fargo, Guttenberg Savings Bank, Walmart, and Mi Casa Es Su Casa Adult Day Care Center.
“We don’t touch money,” said Colacurcio. “We ask for product. It’s 100 percent better. Everything we receive is new. Staples donates folders and notebooks. McDonald’s is amazing. They donated 600 Happy Meals.”
With a location in Guttenberg (and another in Fairview), the FCDC serves the North Hudson community, rotating their back-to-school program yearly between locations in the three towns.
“We try to get people from Bergenline Avenue to come in and offer discounts,” said Colacurcio. “Modells, they’re another great benefactor. They give coupons of 20 percent off. And Panda Shoes on Bergenline Avenue.”
“This is the first time we heard about this,” said Johansen about the back-to-school program. “My daughter’s at Kennedy School and she brought a flyer home today. I told my girlfriend who lives next door to me to bring her kids too. It helps a lot.”