The organization Women of Vision, in partnership with World Vision and Seattle Public Schools distributed 400 backpacks with school supplies to Concord International School students in South Park Thursday, Sept. 8.

Women of Vision (WOV) is a national organization with local chapters serving those struggling for relief from poverty and oppression, in their communities, and around the world. Local WOV volunteers will distribute backpacks to children. World Vision has served 331,853 individuals in the Pacific Northwest, more than half of them children.

"It's an annual tradition," said school principal Norma Zavala, an Arbor Heights resident of the backpack donations. "We have a lot of students who need backpacks and are unable to afford to buy them and this equalizes everything where everyone has a backpack and everyone is special. Many live together with a couple of families in one dwelling. Their backpack is like their portable desk. That's where their homework is, and important papers."

She said she likes changes she has recently seen in the South Park Community.

"I think now you've got a lot of artists in this area," she said. "They've done some very special things with fencing and windows. It's very cool."

Maria Osses-Watson teaches kindergarten at Concord, close to where she grew up. She was born in Chile. Her son, Richie, attends first grade at Concord.

"It's always noticeable when half of your class comes with a backpack and half doesn't because they can't afford it," she said."Last year they were different colors and some had Disney characters on them. We now try to make them uniform so the kids feel it's fair."

White Center raised Reed Slattery works with World Vision and was helping at the school.

"We're here today to make sure that every kid gets a backpack full of supplies to start school off the year on the right foot," he said. "The kids pick up a backpack and leave with a smile on their face. Women of Vision paid for the supplies. We helped distribute 10,000 backpacks through the Puget Sound this summer. Boeing, Bartell Drugs, big companies like that do big supply drives. We'll get companies that donate pallets of crayons that are overstocked that are distributed to teachers.

We have a satellite Teachers Resource Center at the former (Highline Public Schools) Salmon Creek school in White Center set up like a retail store where teachers from this area can pick up supplies."

Linda Duim of Women of Vision, Greater Seattle Chapter, was also on hand. She is in charge of the local projects.

"About 10 years ago we decided we wanted a local project," she said. "We've been coming to Concord for all those 10 years. This project has been wonderful. This is the fun part, the excitement of the kids coming into the gym. It makes me want to be a kid back in the classroom."

Secretary of the chapter, Helen Hopkins, mentioned another Women of Vision project a bit farther afield. She said, "We fundraise for projects overseas, then in a couple of years we go on a trip to see what we've done, like in Nicaragua, and Africa. We usually go to Zambia and have been able to fund many bore holes, or wells. Clean water is the basic need there. They have to walk miles to the nearest dirty water streams. With the new wells, the girls are freed up to go to school, because they don't have to walk five miles with buckets."