375 kids get new, loaded backpacks for school from Mujeres de Colores

Julia Flores’ smile stretched from ear to ear as the 6-year-old put on a pastel-colored backpack with pink shoulder straps to show her mother, Cindy, who was waiting in the hallway outside.

Ruben Gonzalez-Silva, 12, marched right over to the middle-school table and grabbed a Spiderman backpack that he couldn’t wait to show his friends this fall at Blevins Middle School.

“I got the best one,” he said.

His sister, Sofia Gonzalez-Silva, 14, picked a stylish, teal-colored pack from the high school table that she’ll use to tote her laptop, books and other supplies back and forth to Rocky Mountain High School.

Everyone was smiling Tuesday evening as 375 kids, from kindergarteners to high school seniors, picked up brand-new backpacks loaded with the appropriate supplies they need for the coming school year at Mujeros de Colores’ annual backpack distribution.

This year’s event was moved indoors, to the city of Fort Collins’ Streets Department’s operations center at 625 Ninth St., because of concerns about inclement weather following Monday night’s heavy rainfall, said Betty Aragon-Mitotes, founder and president of Mujeros de Colores, a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating the status of women and children.

Families began lining up outside the facility four hours before the backpack distribution began, she said, and at least 200 people were in line when the doors opened. About a dozen volunteers, mostly members of the nonprofit’s board of directors, were there to guide families and their children through the line, help the kids select backpacks from tables matching their grade level and ensure the younger ones were reunited with their parents or guardians as they left the distribution room.

Aragon-Mitotes and another volunteer snapped photos of each of the kids wearing their new backpacks as they checked out, helping organizers keep track of how many fully-loaded backpacks remained for each grade level.

“It’s one less stress away from the parent,” Carmen Vargas said. “We still get what they need after, but it’s more the backpack and convenience of coming and getting everything in one shot, especially having so many kids.”

Vargas and Jennifer Spletter were there to outfit all 12 children in their blended family with backpacks and supplies for the new school year.

“You just grab a grade, and that’s it,” Vargas said. “You know what you need is in there.”

Volunteers had prepared 408 backpacks for this year’s distribution, Aragon-Mitotes said. All of the middle and high school backpacks were claimed, and she’s working through another nonprofit in Wellington to get the extras for grade-schoolers into the hands of children who need them.

“This is what we do,” she said. “We help our community. We help the kids in our community. Whether it’s the families or the children, we’re going to get them covered.”

Backpacks and supplies are purchased with donations from businesses, including New Belgium Brewing, Houska Automotive and Target; other charitable organizations, including the Kristi Visocky Memorial Foundation, Legacy Church and the Breakfast Rotary Club; and individuals, including Carol and Jerry Swofford, Rebecca del la Torre, Rachel Van Houten and Donna Brady, she said.

Fully loaded backpacks for grade-schoolers run about $75 apiece, she said, with those for high-schoolers exceeding $100.

There are no income verification or registration requirements beyond providing the number of children needing backpacks and their grade level to help volunteers plan accordingly. The program is limited to children living in Larimer County, she said, and geared toward working-class and low-income families.

“I’m so grateful to the community and the business community that see the value in what we do in donating,” she said. “One-hundred percent of the donations go to the backpacks and school supplies for kids in Larimer County.”

Lions Club members volunteering with Project Smile handed out small bags with toothbrushes, toothpaste and other dental supplies to kids receiving backpacks as they headed out of the distribution room to reunite with their families.

Mujeres de Colores schedules the backpack distribution for the first Tuesday of August each year to coordinate with the annual Neighborhood Night Out in the Tres Colonias neighborhood of northeast Fort Collins. Usually, there’s a picnic with hot dogs and games in Sugar Beet Park — just east of the city’s Streets Department Operations Center.

Forecasts of potentially heavy rain prompted Mujeres de Colores to move the backpack distribution inside and skip the picnic and games.

Still, a Poudre Fire Authority engine and crew was at the park to greet people in the neighborhood for a short time before it had to leave for a call. Fort Collins Police Chief Jeff Swoboda and Mayor Jeni Arndt showed up later, greeting families waiting in line and the volunteers at the backpack distribution.

A lot of hard work and hours of preparation goes into purchasing, filling, storing, transporting and sorting the backpacks each year, Aragon-Mitotes said.

“The smiles on the kids faces that they are getting a new backpack with supplies were really incredible,” she said.

“If children have the tools they need, they will succeed,” she said. “Some people may not think it’s important for kids to have a new backpack. But when they have a new backpack with the supplies they need, they’re going to school like the other children with new backpacks. They’re not seen as, ‘You’re getting a hand-me-down or an old backpack.

“We do a good thing for the kids, and that’s what it’s about. This is growing every year because of the need in our community. And we want to fill the need in our community.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at [email protected],twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.