Cars drive thru to pick up backpacks and hand sanitizers

Year 2020 has been a year of many firsts, and in preparation for the 2020-2021 school year, Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) had their first Drive-Thru School Backpacks Distribution.

Normally, the annual event consists of hosting a Health Fair along with the Backpack Distribution, but regulations on public gatherings had the YLM staff and volunteers making different plans for this much needed area of service.

“Majority of schools are going on-line for the first seven or nine weeks,” explained Maritza Muñoz, member of San Pablo Lutheran Church and Ministry Facilitating Liaison with YLM, “But we knew there would still be a need for school supplies and backpacks, so we ensured to have everything ready to help 1,000 students, both in El Paso and Juarez.”

Backpacks were filled with basic school supplies

Collaboration and creativity allowed for a Drive-Thru to be able to hand out backpacks filled with school supplies on July 24^th, along with travel size bottles of hand sanitizer, which had been donated to YLM earlier in July.  Thanks to generous donations from individuals and groups -LWML groups, Zion Lutheran Church, T&T Staffing, and IDEA Schools, to name a few -allowed to buy supplies still needed.

“We emptied out our Warehouse where donated backpacks and supplies are stored year-round.  We were able to see what we needed and reach out to the public and there were so many people who blessed us,” Luz Soto, YLM Communications, shared regarding the preparation for the Drive-Thru, “It was amazing and humbling to see people responding to this need, making it possible for us to reach out to over six school districts.”

LWML gift card donations help purchase needed supplies

Due to the ten people or less restrictions, the core group of volunteers working the Drive-Thru consisted of YLM staff and a couple of members from San Pablo Lutheran Church.  Thanks to a registration process prior to the distribution date, the two hours scheduled went smoothly until the last half hour.

“It started to rain hard,” Miguel Muñoz, Adelante Ministry Director and member of San Pablo, laughed at the reminder of that day, “We lowered the tarp to keep the backpacks dry and stayed out there until 8pm, which was when we had announced would be the stopping time.  Not many people came by, but those who did, we were there with their backpacks ready to go.”

Backpacks were given out despite the pouring rain

Backpacks in Juarez have already been distributed among four of the mission churches partnering with YLM.  Pastor Hernandez, from Santisima Trinidad, has distributed over 81 backpacks to children in his church and at an outreach home church in Kilometro 30.  Meanwhile, on the other side of Juarez at San Lucas in Anapra, Pastor Lozano will be distributing over 25 backpacks to children in the surrounding community, most who will start school the first Monday of September.  Over 300 backpacks will be distributed between Santa Biblia and Cristo Rey, where most kids have already started or will be starting on September 7^th.

“It’s always been our vision to change lives through simple acts of kindness,” Rev Dr. Karl Heimer explained during a planning meeting for this annual event, “This is our seventh year giving school backpacks and supplies to kids, and even with this virus making things harder, we will not stop giving kindness to people in these basic but very important ways.”