We just finished our first summer membership campaign at Lookout Santa Cruz, which helped provide approximately 125 backpacks filled with school supplies to local students as part of United Way Santa Cruz County’s annual Stuff the Bus school supply drive.
Lookout’s Double Giveback campaign, which ran from July 13 through Aug. 3, encouraged community members to support both independent local journalism and local students. Lookout donated 10% of new membership proceeds during the campaign to help provide school supplies to children across Santa Cruz County.
The 125 backpacks supported through Lookout’s campaign were part of a much larger community effort. On Aug. 1, over 400 volunteers gathered at Kaiser Permanente Arena for United Way’s Stuff the Bus packing event, filling an estimated 2,800 backpacks with school supplies for students from transitional kindergarten through high school.
As of Aug. 7, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education had already distributed 2,219 of those backpacks, with additional distribution days and direct pickup appointments continuing in the days ahead.
Bringing local journalism and community giving together
At Lookout, we believe being a local news organization means more than reporting on the community. It means being part of it.
That’s what inspired the Double Giveback campaign with United Way Santa Cruz County. For several weeks, our membership campaign centered on a simple idea: supporting local journalism while helping a local student start the school year with the supplies they need.
For many families, the cost of getting ready for a new school year can be a significant financial burden. Backpacks, notebooks, pencils, binders and other classroom essentials can quickly add up.
Stuff the Bus helps ease that burden by providing school supplies to students experiencing hardship, including children facing homelessness, housing insecurity and other challenges.
United Way’s goal this year was to provide 2,500 backpacks to students throughout the county. The Aug. 1 packing event surpassed that goal, with an estimated 2,800 backpacks prepared for distribution.
The scale of the effort reflects what can happen when local organizations, businesses, volunteers and community members come together around a shared need.
A community that shows up
Thank you to everyone who made the campaign possible – our new and existing members, matching donors, sponsors, United Way Santa Cruz County, the volunteers who showed up to Stuff the Bus and everyone who contributed to making sure local students have what they need to start the school year ready to learn.
We’re proud to have contributed backpacks and attention to this countywide effort, and grateful to be part of a community that continues to show up for its students.
