The Lord’s Gym of Jackson County Anti-drug Coalition was recently able to help the J.C. Backpack Club receive some much needed support in form of a $500 check.
The check was given to Melinda Cunagin, club organizer, at a brief ceremony, by Neal Broadus, Lord’s Gym chairman, and Dawn Lang, who is the Jackson County Public Schools’ UNITE Counselor as well as being the Lord’s Gym Substance Abuse Education and Prevention Director.
The J.C. Backpack Club is a weekend feeding program that helps provide food for students that are in need. The group was first formed when it was realized that many children in the county go without the nutrition they need over the weekend. During the week the students receive healthy meals while they are at school, but some children do without over the two day weekend. It was in answer to this problem that the J.C. Backpack Club was formed.
The program is fairly simple. Volunteers fill backpacks with different types of healthy food for the children. The children then pick up their backpack on Friday, and take it home with them. On Monday morning they bring it back to the school, where it is picked up by volunteers to be filled again, starting the process all over.
The Lord’s Gym Anti-drug Coalition, through a partnership with Operation UNITE, is able to secure funding for various anti-drug programs and activities through mini-grants given out locally by the coalition. The J.C. Backpack Club was one of the local programs chosen by the coalition to receive support.
For more information about the Lord’s Gym of Jackson County Anti-drug Coalition and the programs they support, please call Neal Broadus at 364-2218 or 287-LORD(5673).