01 May Community Helps Low-Income Families Through Backpack Distribution 

Organization: Opportunity on Deck
Lives Impacted: 500
Donation: DollarDays 
Website: http://opportunityondeck.com  

As Told to Good360 by Opportunity on Deck 

Opportunity on Deck is a nonprofit organization located in Central Iowa that provides healthy activities for children and their families in the spring. The organization created a soccer league to offer students a healthy after–school activity in hopes of leading to better self-esteem. Parents and kids that come each week have an excellent time learning the fundamentals of the game and interacting with each other on the field.  Giving back to our community is our main mission, and by providing supplies to those who cannot afford to purchase items on their own is one way we help. 

Thanks to DollarDays, we gave backpacks to teachers at King Elementary in Des Moines, a school serving a lot of low-income families and at-risk youth. We filled the bags with school supplies so they could provide them to the families and children in their classes that needed them the most. This donation helped our organization partner with a variety of different community groups to bring greater awareness to the poverty that many families face in Des Moines. We continue to spread awareness throughout the area because many families do not realize the poverty that surrounds them. By providing these backpacks, we are ensuring that the youth get the chance to feel like their peers and aren’t left behind in the classroom. We had multiple families who said they appreciated the backpacks so much and wouldn’t be able to purchase a new backpack although their child or children really needed one. Thank you Good360 and DollarDays for helping the children in our community.