With the proceeds of Operation Fill a Back Pack, school book bags will be filled with much more than pens, pencils and notebooks. They will be filled with opportunities that were made possible thanks to the first ever fundraiser of its kind being held at the Crossings of Colonie on Wednesday, Aug. 12.
The fundraiser was the brainchild of Kelly Stamas, an associate broker with Realty USA. Stamas is involved with a business networking group called Get Connected 2. The group meets every other week,
Get Connected 2 formed in January and, Stamas said, is extremely focused on ways the business people in the group can get involved in their communities.
All of the members of the group come from different businesses, which most of them own. The members are Kara Heider, The Cleaning Person; Stacy Jubert, The Children’s Guide Web site; Tyler Terpening, The Heritage Group; Cindi Fabozi, Bethany Christian Adoption Agency; Artie Forget, Market Street Financial Group; Stephanie Mccauley, Ismile Photos; Stacy Myron, Tumblin Tykes; Susan Zorgrone, California Closets; Antoinette Dimascio, New Key Media; Michelle Sentmier, Bluegrass Promotional Marketing; John Genest, Games 2u; and Kim Gardinier, Event Planner.
Stamas said the group is focused on bringing in like-minded people that want to do the same thing.
But instead of simply meeting to keep talking about their businesses, Stamas said the group decided they wanted to have their first community event as a group.
Barbara Mahaney, senior youth specialist with the Colonie Youth Bureau, said Stamas had actually been working with the CYB for quite some time by donating school supplies to the children who were in need in the beginning of the school year.
Stamas said she did this, on a smaller scale, last year when she decided to call up a few of her friends and ask them to donate some money to their cause.
`I don’t think any kid should go to school feeling like ‘I’m not going to fit in.’ Or parents asking, ‘How am I going to do this for my three kids,’` Stamas said. `You know that there’s a need everywhere and I think you don’t think about kids, it’s an okay town but there are kids whose parents that have lost their jobs.`
Stamas also said her money-raising was quite simple.
`I just came up with this idea-I’m just going to call a bunch of my friends and ask them for $100,` she said. `I raised $800 in less than 4 days.` The $800 helped fill 20 backpacks, with some money left over to buy school supplies for the classrooms, Stamas said.
`Increasingly the kids do not have the school supplies they need,` Mahaney said. The CYB will be working in collaboration with Get Connected 2 at the fundraiser Wednesday.
During the fundraiser, the groups will not be collecting physical items for the back packs, rather collecting money to purchase the backpacks and supplies. All of the supplies will go toward school supplies for students in both the North Colonie Central School District and South Colonie Central School District.
Mahaney said the school supplies will be distributed to students during the CYB’s before and after school programs, most likely during the beginning weeks of school.
The fundraiser will be held at the Crossings of Colonie from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will feature family entertainment such as a clown, human hamster ball and laser tag. There will also be pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream, popcorn, cotton candy and soda.
In case you cannot make it to the event, donation checks can be made to the Colonie Youth Bureau at 20 Aviation Road, Albany, NY 12205.
For more on this story, check back at www.spotlightnews.com, or read the Wednesday, Aug. 12 print edition of the Colonie Spotlight.
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