LIFE WEST AGAIN COMES TOGETHER WITH COMMUNITY TO HELP LOCAL AT-RISK CHILDREN
Hayward, Calif., September 8, 2004

There were a lot of excited kids and grateful parents as the children picked out their very own brand new backpacks for school.

For the eighth straight year, the students, staff, and faculty of Life Chiropractic College West worked together collecting numerous new backpacks for local at-risk children who were returning to school.

The Eighth Annual Life West Annual BACKpack Drive was held in conjunction with the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition's (FESCO) (a local homeless shelter) School Supply Drive . Life West collected the majority of needed backpacks (a natural for a chiropractic college) for kids, as well as young adults who are college bound, while other local organizations and businesses donated additional backpacks and school supplies to stuff the packs with pencils, binders, paper, crayons, rulers, etc.

On August 28, Life West students were on hand to help at the School Supply Drive 's distribution day, held at a local church. The Life West students helped about 130 kids choose their brand new school backpacks and individually adjusted each child's backpack straps for ergonomic correctness.

Throughout the morning the Life West students enjoyed watching the excitement in the kids as they picked out their new school backpacks. They also noticed the heartfelt reunions between a number of families who were once staying together at one of the FESCO shelters, but are now living in their very own homes.

The Life West community spent the majority of the month of August acquiring more than 100 backpacks for the drive. Contributions of cash and backpacks were turned in individually by the college's students, faculty, and staff. College associations, such as the Faculty Senate and Life West's sorority Omega Sigma Phi, also made generous contributions.

“So many great success stories have been brought about through this program, and we are very grateful for Life West's continued support,” said FESCO Executive Director Nancy Schluntz. Giving an example of the effectiveness of the school supply drive, Schluntz talked about one of the mothers who came in for backpacks for her sons that day: “I remember when this single mom and her two young sons entered the FESCO shelter in the late 1990s. A wonderful woman, great kids. We've kept in touch with them after they were able to leave the shelter for a new home of their own, and we would see them at several of our backpack events over the years. This year, she came by herself to pick up the backpacks because her two sons were very busy getting settled in school. One is attending Texas A&M on a football scholarship, and the other is attending Patten College [ Oakland , Calif. ] on a Pepsi Foundation ‘Diamond in the Rough Scholarship'. Does this program help? ABSOLUTELY!”

FESCO is a Hayward based non-profit organization that has been providing food, shelter, counseling, and life-skills to low- and moderate-income families with a goal of keeping them together and moving them toward self-sufficiency. Life West has supported FESCO for a number of years through food, clothing, and school supply drives; provided free health care; taught reading skills to children through the America Reads program; and has made numerous monetary donations.

Life Chiropractic College West, established in 1976, is an accredited non-profit institution of higher learning offering the doctor of chiropractic degree through a four-academic-year program of academic study and clinical internship. The college currently enrolls close to 600 men and women from across the U.S. and abroad. More than 3,300 graduates of Life West are now practicing throughout the world. The college’s Public Health Center, operated by approximately 200 senior interns who are guided by licensed doctors of chiropractic, provides health care for more than 1,700 patient visits a week. Life West maintains a Web site at www.lifewest.edu.

Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this information freely.

For updates or additions to our Latest News page, please contact Jonathan Lance at (510) 780-4500 ext. 2470 or email him at jlance@lifewest.edu