Our Project First Day back-to-school program starts with a child filling out a Mad Lib and ends with the child getting a new backpack, an outfit for the first day of school, and a year's worth of grade-specific school supplies.
Thanks to you, 670 vulnerable New York City children are ready and confident to begin a new school year.
Marking its 17th year in 2023, Project First Day was inspired by Cher during an interview on The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
When she described how she felt “less than” when she was a child because she didn’t have a new school bag or a new outfit for the first day of school. After watching the interview, our founder, Rosalie Joseph, along with TROS producer, Joy Trapani, decided to launch another program, calling it Project First Day. Working with our partner agencies, the children fill out a Mad Lib that lets their sponsor know what they like, their favorite colors, what they want to be when they grow up, etc.
We then work with individuals in companies and other organizations who gather a team of sponsors that purchase a backpack, shoes and an outfit for the child’s first day of school. Unlike our original program, Stockings With Care, the Project First Day sponsors are not anonymous. We ask the sponsors to write a note of encouragement for their child. We believe it has a positive impact when a child knows someone is out there cheering them on.
For the past few years, due to COVID 19, people were primarily working from home and we weren’t able to fully execute the program as we wished, but we made sure to cover as many children as we could with a backpack and school supplies for the year.
In 2023, we fully expected to have the program be a “hybrid” of our original program and the “COVID version”, as a lot of offices continued some sort of “work from home” component. Our expectation was that we’d have 300 children sponsored in the original fashion and 300 children who we would provide a backpack and school supplies for. All of the children would get a note of encouragement and possibly a book to let them know someone was on their side.
Instead, we were overwhelmed by the response from companies wanting to participate and we were able to cover a total of 670 children this year. We are so grateful to Paramount Global, Chase, The Durst Organization, Forbes, The Casting Society of America, Zubatkin Owner Representation, West Elm Kids, Yext, Champalimaud Design, KWT Global, Vidsy.co, SiriusPoint, Vistra, and all who participated as individuals. We couldn’t have done it without you, and your generosity is greatly appreciated!
In addition to the backpacks filled with outfits, we raise funds to purchase the grade-specific school supplies each child needs to complete a successful school year. We even purchase the graphing and scientific calculators for the high school kids so they are fully prepared.
Our team of dedicated volunteers spent two full days sorting 6 large pallets of school supplies into an individual bag for each child. Until you’ve seen it, the enormity of 3546 plastic pocket folders, 670 boxes of pencils and sharpeners, 1369 composition books, 1440 pads of post-it notes and so much more is difficult to describe. It is a Herculean effort and we can’t thank the volunteers who do this enough.
It is only due to our partnership with Staples that we can even attempt to purchase these supplies. They have shown such dedication to Project First Day, not only through their help in getting us the best possible pricing, but they even come and help sort them with us. We couldn’t ask for a more enthusiastic partner, and are so thankful for all they do.
Thank you to all who participated in our Grandma Dinner and generously donated to Project First Day this year. We have still not met our fundraising goal for 2023, and would appreciate if you would consider making a donation - any amount helps! Click here to donate.
While the school supplies are being sorted, another set of volunteers are on a truck gathering all of the filled backpacks from their sponsor companies.
Once they arrive at our work space, generously provided but The Durst Organization, they are paired with the grade-specific school supplies and our volunteers load them on the trucks with our partner agencies to be given to the families we serve.