More Than 700 Volunteers Pack 36,000 Backpacks for Chicagoland Students

Cradle to Crayons staff and organizers gathered for a photo before packing backpack for students at their annual Backpack Event. Photo by Tom Garvey.
Cradle to Crayons staff and organizers gathered for a photo before packing backpack for students at their annual Backpack Event. Photo by Tom Garvey.

More Than 700 Volunteers Pack 36,000 Backpacks for Chicagoland Students

Cradles to Crayons’ annual Backpack-A-Thon brings corporate volunteers together to support its goal of distributing 80,000 backpacks this school year

 

More than 700 volunteers filled Wintrust Arena on July 29th for the 11th annual Backpack-A-Thon hosted by Cradles to Crayons® Chicago (C2C), packing 36,000 backpacks with brand-new school supplies for Chicagoland students in two hours.

 

Inside the arena, the large-scale volunteer effort felt more like a celebration than a packing line. Music filled the space as corporate teams danced, cheered one another on and raced to see who could complete their packing assignments the fastest.

 

Volunteers passed backpacks and supplies from station to station, with many teams completing their assignments before the two-hour event ended. Together, they packed an average of 300 backpacks every minute.

 

While the event was energetic and competitive, its purpose remained at the center of the activity. Every backpack assembled inside the arena will go to a local child preparing to begin the 2026-27 school year.

 

After the event, the completed backpacks were loaded directly onto Amazon trucks for transportation across Chicagoland. Amazon served as C2C’s official transportation partner and helped deliver the backpacks to more than 50 service partners. Those partners will distribute them to students at no cost, with Chicago Public Schools receiving the largest share.

 

Backpack-A-Thon marked a major milestone for C2C’s annual Ready for Learning initiative, which aims to distribute 80,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to Chicagoland students. The 36,000 backpacks assembled at Wintrust Arena represent nearly half of this year’s local goal.

 

Ready for Learning extends beyond backpacks. Through the initiative, C2C also provides children with appropriate clothing, shoes and other essentials to support what the nonprofit calls “head-to-toe readiness.”

 

“Being properly prepared for school is not just about having the right supplies, it’s about setting children up for success by providing them the tools they need to show up confident and helping them feel safe, valued and ready on the first day of school,” said Dawn Melchiorre, executive director of Cradles to Crayons Chicago.

 

Preparing children for a new school year can create significant financial pressure for families already balancing the costs of food, housing and other necessities. Families with school-age children spent an average of $858 on back-to-school items in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation. That included an average of $143.77 on non-electronic school supplies and $418.49 on clothing and footwear.

 

For some households, those costs can lead to difficult choices between immediate needs and purchasing the supplies, clothing and shoes children need for school. C2C reports that one in two children in Chicagoland is affected by Clothing Insecurity, meaning they lack consistent access to affordable, adequate and appropriate clothing.

 

The nonprofit addresses that often-hidden challenge by providing new and gently used clothing, shoes, school supplies and other essentials free of charge to children experiencing homelessness, crisis or low-income circumstances. Access to those items can help students arrive at school feeling confident, comfortable and prepared to participate fully in the classroom.

 

The July 29th Backpack-A-Thon was a private event for corporate partners and volunteers. It followed the organization’s second annual Community Backpack-A-Thon on July 11th, which invited members of the public to help pack backpacks at the Cradles to Crayons Giving Factory.

 

Last year, C2C worked with 16,775 volunteers to distribute 329,885 packages containing approximately 3.65 million essential items. While those numbers demonstrate the scale of C2C’s work, the need for clothing, school supplies and other essentials continues to grow. The organization relies on continued community support to meet that demand.

 

Community members can help by donating new or gently used children’s clothing, shoes, winter coats and backpacks at more than 40 drop-off locations throughout Chicagoland. C2C’s model also relies on volunteers, including individual community members and families with children as young as 5, to help inspect, sort and package items at the organization’s Giving Factory.

 

More information about donating, volunteering and supporting local children is available at https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/chicago/

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

Love In Action And In Real Time