{"id":322428,"date":"2026-08-16T05:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322428\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T05:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T05:56:10","slug":"community-groups-distribute-over-750-backpacks-at-nyc-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/322428\/","title":{"rendered":"Community groups distribute over 750 backpacks at NYC event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2014 Hundreds of families gathered at Kaiser Park on Saturday for a back-to-school celebration that offered free backpacks, school supplies, food, music and community resources.<\/p>\n<p>Children lined up for supplies while families spent the afternoon together ahead of the new school year. The event brought together Coney Island Prep, the Alliance for Coney Island, the YMCA and other local community organizations.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\tDiscover more local reporting on our homepage\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For Aurora Royster, a mother of five, the giveaway offered meaningful financial relief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt saves me a lot of money,\u201d Royster said.<\/p>\n<p>Royster said back-to-school shopping can quickly become expensive for a large family, especially without much outside help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of money, it\u2019s really difficult, having all of these kids and no help,\u201d Royster said. \u201cThe community is helping. Providing the things we need so it saves a lot of money in my pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Organizers said the event was designed to offer more than notebooks and pencils. Families also had access to resources connected to food, literacy, and health.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty community-based organizations worked together to help families prepare for the start of the school year.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/news\/local-news\/how-to-make-pix11-a-preferred-source-on-google\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\tMake PIX11 your preferred news source on Google: Here\u2019s how\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to make sure that we are being well-rounded around our family\u2019s experience, living in America right now, living in New York right now,\u201d said Kadidiattou Ouedraogo, a director of student recruitment at Coney Island Prep. \u201cAnd making sure that they feel fully prepped and successful. Not just for the school year, but just for life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 750 backpacks were distributed to students from pre-K through 12th grade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIts important for us to show up for our community the way our community shows up for us,\u201d Ouedraogo said.<\/p>\n<p>The next backpack giveaway is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20 at noon at Kaiser Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2014 Hundreds of families gathered at Kaiser Park on Saturday for a back-to-school celebration that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-322428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}