{"id":54468,"date":"2014-08-08T16:46:35","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T23:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=54468"},"modified":"2014-08-08T16:58:52","modified_gmt":"2014-08-08T23:58:52","slug":"saves-backpack-giveaway-helps-hundreds-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2014\/08\/08\/saves-backpack-giveaway-helps-hundreds-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"SAVES backpack giveaway helps hundreds in need"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pastor<\/a>
Pastor Abner Diaz of Life Church Antelope Valley (left) gives four backpacks filled with school supplies to Yuliana Garcia and two of her five children. Life Church Antelope Valley donated more than 300 of the 600 backpacks that were distributed to families in need Friday at South Antelope Valley Emergency Services (SAVES).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALMDALE \u2013 Hundreds of Palmdale school children have brand-new backpacks and supplies for the first day of school, thanks to a backpack giveaway Friday at South Antelope Valley Emergency Services (SAVES).<\/p>\n

\"SAVES<\/a>
SAVES Coordinator Patricia Morales shows the school supplies inside the backpacks for high school students — pencil boxes, calculators, erasable pens, dictionaries, three ring binders, notebook paper, erasers, staplers, graph paper, and flash drives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re providing, this year, 600 backpacks to our community,\u201d said SAVES Coordinator Patricia Morales, adding that the backpacks are filled with school supplies according to age and grade level. \u201cWe tried very hard to make sure that we got them good quality backpacks that would make it through the year and school supplies to last them a long time,\u201d Morales said.<\/p>\n

Local families in need pre-registered in July for Friday\u2019s backpack giveaway, according to Morales. To qualify, families had to show proof of income, address and number of people in the household.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on those [criteria], they qualified for SAVES services, and this is one of the services that we provide,\u201d Morales said, adding that the service is especially important for the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important because back to school should be an exciting time for children; they should be going back to school filled with hope that the next year will bring better things,\u201d Morales said. \u201cI think it is a good opportunity for the community to say to these families, no matter how their financial situations\u00a0might be, \u2018we care enough and we want your child to go [back to school] on the same level as everybody else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The backpacks and supplies were purchased using community donations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The backpacks and supplies were purchased using community donations. More than half of the backpacks were donated by Life Church Antelope Valley in Palmdale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe donated over 300 backpacks,\u201d said the church\u2019s pastor, Abner Diaz. \u201cIt\u2019s important because we see the need in our community, and we\u2019re always looking to fill needs in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz said the church has donated hundreds of backpacks to residents in need every year for the past three years.<\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a>
Back to school should be an exciting time for children, coordinators of the giveaway said.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, the congregation decided to join forces with SAVES, Diaz said. Members of the congregation also pitched in to distribute the backpacks at the SAVES office Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings joy to us to be able to serve our community,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n

The SAVES program was started in 1983 to offer assistance to South Antelope Valley individuals and families who are experiencing a temporary emergency situation. For more information on this program, call 661-267-5191.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALMDALE \u2013 Hundreds of Palmdale school children have brand-new backpacks and supplies for the first day of school, thanks to a backpack giveaway Friday at South Antelope Valley Emergency Services (SAVES). \u201cWe\u2019re providing, this year, 600 backpacks to our community,\u201d said SAVES Coordinator Patricia Morales, adding that the backpacks are filled with school supplies according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}