All Diocesan Articles

UConn students from the Catholic Center @ Storrs had a successful donation drive in support of “Backpacks for Life” on Saturday, April 5th.  Ava Abruzzese, UConn Junior, organized the event and would like to thank everyone who supported it.  She welcomed volunteers from UConn as well as Little Sisters of the Poor from Enfield to help sort and put together the backpacks.

BFL distributes military-grade backpacks filled with daily essential items to help homeless and at-risk veterans.  A backpack is like a home to many veterans and these backpacks are a symbol of hope and reassurance that they are not alone on their path toward self-sufficiency.  

Nearly 1,000 daily essential items were collected on Saturday and sorted and then put into gallon size storage bags to fill 40 backpacks.  These backpacks will then be distributed to Veteran Service Organizations in the CT who directly support the under-served veteran community.  

Monetary donations were also generously made to help offset the cost of the backpacks.  

By Jamie DePaola
USMC Veteran, BFL Program Manager