By Richard Kaufman
Two weeks ago at the Grauer Preschool on Arch Street, TriNet, a cloud-based professional employer organization for small and medium-sized businesses with a location in Stamford, donated 100 backpacks full of school supplies to Family Centers.
In each backpack, there were folders, notebooks, crayons, gluesticks, rulers, erasers, markers, post-it notes and even personalized, handwritten notes from TriNet employees.
The backpacks will go to the Family Centers’ School-Based Health Centers in Stamford public schools. The health clinics offer physical and mental health care, and are free to any student enrolled in public school. Some will also go to Stamford Cares, which offers care and support for people who have HIV.
For Dennis Torres, director of health care programs for Family Centers, the donation is always welcome. “It’s great. These kids just are happy,” he said.
Jacquelyn Nuzzo, a client services associate for TriNet, helped organize the backpacks and said the experience is rewarding for her and her colleagues. She believes it’s important for the workplace to be involved with the community.
“I’ve worked at other companies in the past where they would match charitable donations but there wasn’t a whole department dedicated to that. So it’s really important to be involved in activities like this,” she said.
Family Centers’ advancement specialist, Carter Ashforth, said the backpack donation makes her feel supported and excited.
“We run on a very school-year calendar. The beginning of school is a big time for Family Centers,” she said. “It’s just amazing in times like we’re living in now, where there’s so much negative stuff going on, to see members of our community giving their money, time, resources to other community members that are in need; it makes me feel really positive, at least for our little Fairfield County community.”
