School supplies, the tools of learning: Empower students with a donation

DONATE, delight, empower is not the name of a new Julia Roberts movie, but describes a process with its own ability to inspire confident smiles.

Reader contributions to the school-supply drive of The Seattle Times Fund for the Needy help provide low-income students with backpacks full of grade-appropriate tools of learning.

The expense of starting a new school year hangs over struggling families all summer. Generous donations not only equip students to learn, they also relieve the dread of showing up empty-handed. The gift of blending is indeed empowering.

Donations arrive from an honor roll of readers who have struggled as parents or burned with embarrassment as students. Teachers are regular contributors to our editorial-page campaign.

They are part of broad community efforts to help needy students. For example, Bartell Drugs and World Vision have partnered for their seventh annual School Tools for Kids in Need Program.

Another noteworthy program is the Back to School Consortium that includes the cities of Lake Forest Park and Shoreline; Embrace Shoreline Schools; Hopelink; Shoreline Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services; The Works of Shoreline PTA Council; Shoreline School District and the Readiness to Learn Program; Center for Human Services; The Vineyard; Turning Point and YMCA.

Here at The Times, reader contributions reach grateful families via three fine agencies that combine bulk purchasing and legions of volunteers to stretch donated dollars: Hopelink, the YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County, and the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness.

Please consider the confidence-inducing effect of a decision to donate, delight and empower.