Backpacks full of school supplies are waiting to be picked up Tuesday, August 20, at the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area “Packs for Progress” event at the West Farmington Grange in West Farmington. Leo Goddard/Franklin Journal

WEST FARMINGTON – Backpacks full of school supplies lined the stage of the West Farmington Grange on Monday, August 19, and Tuesday, August 20, as parents came to pick them up for their children during the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area “Packs for Progress” event.

For over ten years the annual “Packs for Progress” event has aided and supported families with free backpacks and school supplies. It functions heavily on donations. L.L. Bean donated 100 backpacks, and there are businesses and organizations in the area that hold school supply drives for this event as well. Parents pick up the backpacks at the designated location nearest them – this year it was the West Farmington Grange in West Farmington, or Spruce Mountain Adult Education in Livermore Falls.

Backpacks are labeled discreetly with grade, school, and age and then filled with general school supplies such as notebooks, pens, pencils, and erasers. At each pickup location there is also a selection of free books and other donated things for families to take home with them. This program relies on sponsors like Poland Spring, Franklin Savings Bank, Bangor Savings Bank, and Franklin Memorial Hospital. It also operates with the help of volunteers from the Farmington Rotary Club and, this year, the UMF Cooperative Extension Homemakers who help organize and stuff the backpacks with supplies.

Nichole Ernest, Director of Marketing and Communications at United Way of the Tri-Valley Area shared that there was a record low number of signups this year. Where there are typically around 600 backpacks requested by families in Franklin County, Livermore Falls, and Livermore, this year there were only about 250. When asked if this might be a positive sign, Ernest said she wants to believe that, but that it is more likely that parents may have simply missed the deadline to sign up, or maybe that they found a different school supply program. She said she hopes that the kids are getting the supplies that they need.

Although there were only about 250 signups for this program this summer, Ernest predicts that there will be at least 300 backpacks given away. She said she ordered extra bags than had been requested due to the suspiciously low number of sign ups and that there is already a waiting list to receive leftover supplies.