A worthwhile local program is being conducted in conjunction with the Battlefords Indian and Métis Friendship Center to help local kids going back to school.
The program is being spearheaded by the RBC Royal Eagles, an internal aboriginal employee resource group at the Royal Bank who provide the Royal Eagles Backpack Program on an annual basis.
The idea is to partner with local friendship centers to deliver backpacks filled with school supplies to students returning to school in the fall.
The Royal Bank contacted the local BIMFC about the program, and they were selected as one of 12 across Canada to participate.
Monday, volunteers were at the Friendship Centre filling up backpacks with school supplies.
A total of 106 backpacks were being filled. RBC donated the money for the backpacks and the school supplies.
Helping fill the backpacks was a representative from RBC Dominion Securities as well as other volunteers. They filled the packs with binders, paper, pens, markers and crayons, with the items were selected based on what students required for their grade level.
BIMFC youth co-ordinator Kathy Whitford said parents brought in lists of items their kids required. She and other volunteers were busy all morning setting up a table to place all the items required to fill all the backpacks. The volunteers were still filling the backpacks with items by the afternoon.
The friendship center was appreciative of the financial donation from RBC, which they put to use purchasing the supplies.
Purchasing the multitude of supplies proved a big job in itself, as Whitford noted they had literally "cleaned out" local store shelves of what they had available.
"We did the shopping. It took four days to get all the supplies," said Whitford. They made those purchases locally as much as possible.
The backpacks were then set aside for students to come pick up that day.
They are being provided to students throughout the community at both the elementary and high school level across all divisions.
That includes several elementary schools in both North Battleford and Battleford as well as John Paul II and North Battleford Comprehensive High School.
