Ashburn resident collects backpacks for students overseas

He remembers how hard it was walking to school each day, often in the rain, and not having enough money to purchase new school supplies.

That's why the Ashburn resident, 40, has started a campaign to collect new and gently used backpacks to send to students in his hometown.

“This is very personal for me,” Delos Reyes said. “The backpacks I used were hand-me-downs, but a lot of kids there didn't even have one.”

Backpacks are one of the most important things for students there to have, and they are also one of the most expensive, he said.

They're often hard for poor families in Quezon City to afford, and it's even more of a problem during the rainy season.

Sometimes it rains for two weeks straight, Delos Reyes said, and for kids without backpacks, their books get wet on the walk to and from school each day.

“I figured, what better way to help the kids there than to collect backpacks,” he said. “A lot of kids here get a new one every year.”

Delos Reyes moved to the United States with his mom and a brother when he was 20.

Since then, he's visited the Philippines a few times, and he still has brothers and sisters who live in his hometown.

They see the overcrowding in the schools, and they witness many of the students having to go without school supplies like backpacks.

The problems have gotten so bad that students there are often crowded 60 to a classroom, he said, and the school has had to start running in three separate sessions per day so all the students can fit inside the building.

Hearing stories like those and seeing the conditions during a trip prompted Delos Reyes to start the backpack project.

He started collecting them in February, and he already has about 50.

His goal is to get up to around 300 backpacks so he can ship enough to the Philippines to really help make a difference at his former school.

“I'm hoping to do it annually,” Delos Reyes said. “I know it's a small thing, but it makes a big difference to these kids.”

Anyone wishing to donate a new or gently used backpack can drop it off during business hours at Washington First Bank, 46901 Cedar Lake Plaza in Sterling; Tally Ho Theatre, 19 W. Market St. in Leesburg; or Logan's Roadhouse, 46321 McClellan Way in Sterling on Mondays between 12:30 and 1 p.m. during meetings of the Sterling Rotary Club.

Backpacks also may be brought to the Loudoun Times-Mirror office, 9 E. Market St. in Leesburg.

For more information, contact Delos Reyes at 571-278-9724 or e-mail Island2268@htomail.com.

Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com