Saratoga Rotary’s Community Service Committee participated in two programs to help make sure local students had everything they needed to go back to school this fall. 
 
West Valley Community Services Back-to-School Shopping Spree
On August 9, West Valley Community Services hosted their annual Back-to-School Shopping Spree, supplying over 90 children with back-to-school clothes and supplies. WVCS collected donations from the community to provide each child, grade kindergarten through 12, with a JCPenny gift card of $100 or $150, depending on their grade level, and a new backpack with school supplies.  Volunteers assisted with the set-up, check-in, and distribution of backpacks and supplies.  Other volunteers, including six Saratoga Rotary members, got to take a student shopping for back-to-school clothing before the store opened for business.
 
It was so much fun and so rewarding to shop with the students!  They, and their parents who were waiting outside the store, were so appreciative of the help with all the expenses that are incurred at the start of a new school year. Students receiving the new items attended schools in Cupertino, Saratoga, and West San Jose, the WVCS service area. JCPenny employees volunteered their time to come work the cash registers and help students find new clothes and the store applied generous discounts to help us stretch the gift cards a little farther.  Those who participated are already looking forward to the Back-to-School Shopping Spree next summer.
 
Innvision School Supplies Drive
Thanks to the generous donations of our Saratoga Rotarians, our club raised close to $2,000 worth of Back To School Supplies for the children served by Innvision Shelter Network!  

Innvision's mission is to help homeless families rapidly return to permanent housing and self-sufficiency, and the families in the Innvision program have a 94% success rate of returning to stable housing and becoming self-sufficient.  The average length of stay for families that graduate from their transitional housing program is 188 days, significantly less than the national average.  

Our donations of backpacks, calculators, crayons, notebooks, scissors, binders, lunch boxes, pens, pencils, and more went directly to benefit the children and youth at Innvision who are struggling with homelessness.  We sent a strong message to these children that we see them, we care about their lives, and we support their future.