It's August 15, coming on 8:00 a.m. It's Gear for Grades day 2011. Despite the fact that the temperature will be in the 80's by noon, there are remnants of snow on the streets and sidewalks of downtown Pittsburgh —

 

Yes, snow, thanks to the filming of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in downtown Pittsburgh.

Eager HCEF volunteers and Citizens Bank volunteers will soon be gathering outside the bank headquarters.

Already in the bank lobby are carts loaded with supplies-filled backpacks.

As always, the WJAS radio team is here and ready to broadcast.

Right on time, the two school buses are coming up William Penn Way.

While Zach and his two young helpers mount the HCEF banner on the side of Bus#2 . . .

 

Laura checks her spreadsheet to reconfirm which bags go on which bus and then signals the eager volunteers to begin the loading.

 

 

In quick order all of the bags full of backpacks have been stowed on the buses, . . .

the bus doors have been closed and locked,

the HCEF staff and volunteers as well as the Citizens Bank staff and volunteers have cheerfully celebrated a job well done,

and now the wheels on the bus go round and round, taking their eagerly awaited loads all across the city and county.

HCEF's mission is the message of this event: to provide facility-based programming designed to ensure that children who are homeless have access to the same educational opportunities as their peers. And a new backpack for the first day of school, though seemingly insignificant, helps make a child living in a homeless facility the peer of every other child entering the classroom.

Return to Gear for Grades

(8/20/11)