The Backpack Venture says "Thankyou"

28 August 23

The Backpack Venture Limited is a charity (subject to final registration and DGR status).

Our objectives are to provide benevolent relief to disadvantaged school children in the community.  To achieve that objective, we will gift backpacks to children, that require assistance, to start the school year with a backpack full of the essential items to ensure that they feel empowered, equal, confident, proud, excited, and ready to learn.

The Backpack Venture originated via a conversation around a campfire in western NSW.  From these origins a small team of volunteers has been formed to assist with the establishment of the company and subsequent submissions to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).

Due to the desire to aid those disadvantaged children within our community, there have been several collection and provision drives.  The first was to the area of the Hunter Valley, with Denman as the central point with 9 surrounding schools being beneficiaries of essential supplies. In total we were able to supply more than 400 backpacks.

The second adventure took the Team to Coonabarabran where a further 600 fully packed backpacks were delivered to 6 schools.

Whilst our objective is to focus on small rural towns within NSW, we were called on in 2022 to aid in the relief effort for the victims of the devastating floods in Lismore and Northern NSW.  Over a relatively short period of time, and via a shout-out to our community we were able to source and deliver 2 fully loaded trucks complete with 2,000 backpacks and supplies to assist not only the children who had lost everything but also supply teaching aids to the teachers and support staff. 

In all we have been able to assist more than 3,000 disadvantaged children since the conversation around a campfire in western NSW.

A majority of donations have come from a very caring community, throughout the lower Hunter Valley, Maitland, Cessnock, Port Stephens, Newcastle, and Lake Macquarie.  Whilst it not only about the donations it is also about the businesses that have opened their doors as collection points, these have ranged from individuals through to the State MP for Wallsend, Sonia Hornery.  Sonia has been a true advocate for The Backpack Venture by opening her office doors for donations and speaking of our needs and successes.

And, with the amazing support, and partnership with organisations such as Lodge Novacastria 765 and Assisting Clubs we have been extremely fortunate to have received $7,000 in donations as well as backpacks, supplies and other donations.  This generosity has allowed The Backpack Venture to be able to source the required backpacks and supplies to be able to continue to achieve our objectives.

In closing we once again wish to say how thankful we are of all the work and support we have received from Lodge Novacastria 765 and assisting Clubs, you have helped so many families and most of all children so that they may have what they need for a great start to their school days.

Kind regards Colleen and The Backpack Venture Team.