Huntington Bank, Salvation Army partner to deliver 1,000 backpacks to IPS schoolchildren in need

This morning, Salvation Army Indiana Divisional Commander, Major Richard Amick was pleased to accept 1,000 backpacks and school supplies from Huntington Bank on behalf of Indianapolis Public School children across the city. The donation is part of a 30,000 backpack donation throughout Huntington’s six-state service area.

Major Amick was all smiles accepting the donation saying, “times are every bit as challenging as they were last year, so it’s exciting to see the community rise up to help us reach out to IPS schoolchildren and give them the tools they need and the hope to succeed.”

In fact, in this its second year partnering with The Salvation Army, Huntington has more than doubled the backpack donation to Indianapolis schoolchildren. In fact, this year, The Salvation Army will distribute about 600 more backpacks than in 2009. Read more

Indians’ Clement pays day campers a visit

This past Friday, Jeff Clement, spent the morning hanging out with the kids at The Salvation Army’s Eagle Creek Community Center.  “Today was a great opportunity to come down to The Salvation Army and spend time with these kids.  It’s more fun, than anything because I’m just a big kid myself,” said Clement, first baseman for the Indianapolis Indians.

The kids are all part of The Salvation Army’s Summer Food Program, which provides nutritional meals for at-risk youth in the Eagle Creek area.  “For some of the kids here, this is the only full meal they get during the day,” said Captain Leti Crowell, Corps Officer for The Salvation Army Eagle Creek.  The program was started to bridge the gap between school sessions.  Nearly all of the children qualifiy for the Federal School Lunch program and many would go without a quality meal this summer without the help of The Salvation Army.

A big part of the day is organized recreation and when Clement heard about the opportunity to go and play with the kids, he jumped at it.  Read more