Empowering Education

As the summer comes to an end and school starts back up CBOB empowers our kids through education at our Back to School events.
By: Karin Fazio
As Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” People can take away your fame, your house, your job, your car, but education is the one thing someone cannot take away from you. Education is the pathway to success and it all begins with school.

Every year, school supplies can cause a huge financial strain on a family's budget, especially if there are two or more children to supply for. Since 2006, the cost of school supplies has increased by 88 percent for elementary students. On average, a family will spend about $200 per child on school fees and supplies. For many students, whether or not they arrive on the first day of school with the proper school supplies can set their attitude for the rest of the school year.
​For Children Beyond Our Borders back to school season is our favorite! Each year we hold our annual back to school events in Alachua and Orlando. Our CBOB family gather together for one last summer bash. Games, prizes, food, and activities are planned to bring the best experience for the kids. In Alachua, a Pediatric Mobile Clinic is arranged with UF Doctors to provide children and their families with medical attention. Dr. Diana Montoya-Williams is the leading Pediatrician for this event and states “Our hope is that by combining the existing infrastructure of the UF mobile Outreach Clinic with the pediatric expertise of physicians, nurses as practitioners and physician assistants at UF, we can help ameliorate local health disparities”.  Kids leave with a backpack filled with school supplies and are ecstatic for school to begin. For Tati Paz, the former Operations Director,  her favorite part of the mobile clinics are seeing the team come together to provide the community with the healthcare they need. She expects to help provide healthcare for even more families this year. “The kids will leave ready for school with backpacks full of supplies and their physicals filled out.” remarked Paz.

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​Currently, our Outreach Interns at UCF and UF are working tirelessly to finalize all of the plans for the carnival themed events. Just like a real carnival, booths will be set up to both educate and entertain the children. For Diving Back to School, the Orlando event, plans have been arranged for a bounce house with a slip-n-slide, snow cone machine, DJ, and educational booth games that can win participants extra raffle tickets. As for the Back to School Bash in Alachua, there will be face painting, a DJ, and booths focusing on physical and oral health. This will be the first year that the Pediatric Mobile Clinic and Back to School Bash will be combined. Shana Call, the Operations Director, hopes to meet the needs of the entire community in one location by fusing these two events together. “I am looking forward to helping children become empowered with the tools necessary to achieve success in school. Education is an important factor to breaking the cycle of poverty and through this event, our hope is to encourage empowerment through education” Call states.

Every student who joins us at either location will go home with a backpack. If you’d like to donate or sponsor a child, it is not too late. The deadline to do so is July 28th at 11:59PM. To donate, please visit: www.chbob.org/backpacks 
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We are also always accepting volunteers for both locations so sign up to be apart of something big. Watch as we give out over one hundred backpacks and spread smiles across kids faces.
​Click below on the location you'd like to volunteer at!
Orlando 
Alachua​

Reference:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/multimedia/Basic-School-Supplies-Cost-Suppling-Our-Schools-428674453.html

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