Summer activity backpacks for local children are still available despite the handout event being cut short on Saturday.
The Centralia Sons of the American Legion held a backpack giveaway Saturday at George Washington Park organized by Oakview Elementary School student Kaison Mendez-Martinez with help from his father and Centralia American Legion member Antonio Mendez.
The event sought to distribute 200 backpacks filled with summer activities to residents 12 years old and younger. It started at noon Saturday.
While the American Legion in the past has done school supplies backpack giveaways, Mendez said more organizations have started doing the same thing. As a result, the local American Legion hall decided to switch gears and provide summer activities instead after a suggestion from Mendez-Martinez.
“This time, we decided, well, he mostly decided, instead of doing school supplies we’d just give them some summer activities,” Mendez-Martinez said. “So we got a whole bunch of summer activities and the library provided us with their summer calendar so the kids know what's going on.”
According to Mendez-Martinez, the backpacks included chalk, bubbles, hacky sacks, rockets, rubber balls, rubber ducks and more to keep kids busy this summer.
The handout event was cut short. Organizers decided to pack up and move on as early attendance for the “No Kings” protest overlapped with the program. According to a Facebook post on the American Legion Grand Hodge Post 17 page, many parents chose not to bring their kids as a result of the protest, which led to only 30 of the 200 bags being distributed.
In the post, Post 17 Commander Robert “Bob” Clark expressed disappointment that the overlapping events led to an underwhelming turn out and suggested protests in the future be scheduled for different times or locations so as not to interfere with planned community events.
“We were disheartened that our efforts to support local children were overshadowed by the protest, and it created an unforeseen obstacle to our mission,” Clark said. “To avoid future conflicts with community initiatives, we respectfully hope that protests be scheduled on different days or different locations to ensure our events can proceed without disruption.”
In comments on the Facebook post, the American Legion told community members that they would plan another event soon and that residents could reach out to the American Legion directly to organize picking up a bag for their young ones. Learn more online at https://www.facebook.com/granthodgepost17.
