Backpack program helps children in need across Barrie and beyond

As another school year approaches, Pie Wood Fired Pizza and Barrie's mayor have filled hundreds of backpacks with school essentials to give to children in need across the city and beyond.

For the past 14 years, the initiative Providing Instruments for Excellence (PIE) in Education has provided more than 27,000 backpacks to children in the community.

"We're trying to make sure that every young person who is going back to school this fall has all of the tools and utensils they need to be successful in school, to have that confidence in themselves and certainly in the work that they're doing. So, this year, we'll be doing somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,200 backpacks in Barrie and about 7,500 across the province," said Alex Nuttall, Mayor of Barrie.

Nuttall said plenty of supplies are still needed for this year's campaign.

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"Pencil crayons and geometry sets are really important for the upper-level grades, and we could certainly use some more of those based on the stock that we've seen so far," he said.

The bags are given to various community organizations who distribute the backpacks to the children they support.

Officials said this campaign was only possible with the help of volunteers, but more are always needed.

"So, we'll have literally tens of hundreds of volunteers over the week; we're always looking for more. There will be tons of people coming out to help pack the backpacks, unload them off of the trucks, get them all sorted, and then load it back on, and certainly, just make sure all of these kids can have everything for their back-to-school," said Nuttall.

Organizers of the Boots and Hearts Barn Burner charity hockey game on Aug., 7 in Barrie are asking attendees to bring lined paper for binders as a donation.