FBI Newark CAAA Backpack Drive

FAIRFIELD, NJ (Aug. 17, 2022)—As another summer winds down, children all throughout the state of New Jersey are getting ready to go back to school. It’s an exciting time for everyone. But for some children and their families, a new school year also means additional expenses for new school supplies that they may have difficulty paying for.

To help ease these families’ burden, the Embrace Relief Foundation and the FBI Newark Citizens Academy Alumni Association are teaming up for our fourth annual Backpack Drive, which will deliver backpacks and other school supplies to more than 1,000 students in seven different locations spread throughout the state of New Jersey this month.

Embrace Relief and the FBINewarkCAAA have a growing history of partnering together to help the New Jersey community. In addition to the last three years of the Backpack Drive, the two nonprofit organizations have joined together at various times of year to deliver food, blankets, and other necessities to people in need.

“It gives us great pride to be here today with Embrace Relief,” said Edie Peters Liguori, FBINewarkCAAA President. “This is just one of the initiatives we do throughout the year, and Embrace Relief is always beside us. I’m very thankful for all that they do, not only for the FBI Newark Citizens’ Academy, but also everyone throughout the entire world. I’m looking forward to our next collaboration together.”

To prepare the backpacks for students, members of the FBINewarkCAAA Board of Trustees joined Embrace Relief workers and volunteers at Embrace Relief’s office in Fairfield on Sunday morning, Aug. 14. They all worked together over the course of four hours to pack 1,008 backpacks and 120 insulated lunch bags full of supplies. 

The backpacks are brand new, high-quality, and durable, and come in two sizes, 19 inches (large) and 17 inches (small). Each backpack was filled by hand with several spiral-bound notebooks; a packet filled with pens, crayons, markers, paper, erasers, folders, and a ruler; a package of sanitary wet wipes; and a note wishing students the best of luck in the upcoming school year.

All of these materials were purchased with donations collected jointly by the FBINewarkCAAA and Embrace Relief. Additionally, sponsors for the Fourth Annual Backpack Drive include Meineke Car Care Center of Jersey City, Raritan Central Railway, Lakeland Bank, and Peace Islands Institute.

“I’d like to thank the board members of the FBI Newark CAAA, as well as all of the sponsors who have sponsored this backpack distribution,” said Osman Dulgeroglu, Embrace Relief CEO. “We are very happy to have prepared 1,000 backpacks, which will be a big help for low-income families throughout New Jersey.”

The FBINewarkCAAA will handle the distribution of the backpacks and lunch bags, stopping in seven locations spread widely throughout the state during the final weeks of August. Distribution events include the following locations and dates (some dates still to be announced):

• Aug. 21: Mount Bethel Church, 491 Bellevue Avenue, Trenton

• Aug. 22: Reverend Dawson, Garfield and Arctic avenues, Wildwood

• Aug. 30: East Newark School, 501 North 3rd Street, East Newark

• Sept. 1: Jersey City School #20, 239 Ocean Avenue, Jersey City

• Boys and Girls Club of Lodi, 460 Passaic Avenue, Lodi

• Hope and Esperanza Community Health Center, 788 Mount Prospect Avenue, Newark

• Inglesia Ciudad de Refugio, 436 Market Street, Perth Amboy

The Embrace Relief Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Fairfield, NJ, which focuses on a variety of different programs designed to reduce suffering and promote human development around the world. These programs have been developed in harmony with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide a framework for “shared peace and prosperity for people and the planet.” Since 2013, Embrace Relief has operated programs in more than 40 countries, centered on eight different humanitarian causes that address the majority of SDGs: hunger relief, clean water, women’s empowerment, health and wellness, relief for children, disaster relief, education support, and refugee relief.

The FBI Newark Citizens Academy Alumni Association is a community-based and supported 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, distinct and separate from the FBI. It is designed to promote a more informed and safer community through diverse service projects and by educating business, labor, media, medical, minority, government, education, religious, senior citizen, and community leaders in the State of New Jersey and in particular, about law enforcement, with particular emphasis on the mission, resources, and limitations of the FBI.