Backpacks for Hope

Calling all Cougars

Backpacks for Hope Campaign

Steve Gleason, former Cougar and current New Orleans Saint, with One Sweet World Foundation have partnered with Athletes Making a Difference, WSU, and WSU's College of Education to collect backpacks filled with school supplies and distribute them to students displaced by Katrina.

What you can do
Determine the grade level of student you wish to help, purchase or recycle a backpack appropriate for the grade level, and indicate that grade level on the outside of the backpack (affixing a tag or label with a piece of tape will do).

• Fill the backpack with school supplies: (notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, colored pencils, markers, rulers, scissors and glue).
• Add a favorite children's book, appropriate for the age of the student.
• Add in a stuffed animal for the student.
• Please include a journal or notebook so that the child receiving the backpack can record their story. These stories will be compiled and be made available in book form to benefit One Sweet World's Literacy Project.

There are several ways to donate:

• There will be a booth at the Qwest Exhibition Center and one outside the gate at the WSU Grambling game on September 17th. (We collected about 3000 backpacks!)
  
• Backpacks will be collected again at the WSU-Stanford Football game at Martin Stadium on Saturday October 8th.
• Backpacks can be delivered to the WSU College of Education Dean's Office M-F 8-5, until October 7th, where the backpacks will be brought to the WSU-Stanford game.
  
• Backpacks can be donated on the WSU campus at the CUB on Fridays from 10-1 for the next four weeks (Sept. 16, 23, 30 and Oct. 7).
• You can send backpacks directly to the Saints temporary facility in San Antonio at this address: Backpacks for Hope, c/o New Orleans Saints, Nelson W. Wolfs Stadium, 5757 W. US Highway 90, San Antonio, TX 78227, ATTN: Paul Corliss.
• You can send a check made out to One Sweet World Foundation to:
  One Sweet World Foundation, c/o Josselyn Miller, Foundation Director, 10367 Azuaga Street, #162, San Diego, CA 92129. The Foundation's Non-Profit Tax ID # is: 58-2085326 and the web address is www.sweetworld37.com .
  
• Or you can send backpacks to Backpacks for Hope, c/o Deuce McAllister Motors, Jackson, MS., where they will be distributed to students displaced by the storm.

Who is doing all of this?
One Sweet World is a 501c3 charitable foundation started in September of 2003 by Steve Gleason. One Sweet World has two major focuses, Environmental Sustainability and Literacy Program Development. One Sweet World is committed to educational and environmental stewardship. tax ID # 58-2085326 (http://sweetworld37.com/)

Athletes' Making a Difference is an athlete initiated relief effort of multiple players uniting for one cause, relief from Hurricane Katrina. Steve Gleason has teamed up with Deuce McAllister, Running Back for the New Orleans Saints, and Michael Lewis, Wide Receiver/Punt Returner of the New Orleans Saints along with other players across the country for this effort.

Washington State University and the WSU College of Education
Backpacks for Hope is WSU's partnership with former Cougar football player Steve Gleason, a NFL New Orleans Saints player, and his mother, Gail Gleason, a WSU College of Education doctoral student and graduate assistant.

For More Information
If you need any further information or would like to commit to a monetary donation please call Josselyn Miller at 858.220.3937 or email her at catch22foundation@sbcglobal.net

Questions about the program within the Washington State area can be directed to Gail Gleason at 509.990.6284 or by email at gigleason@wsu.edu