It was simple.

It was simple, really: they didn't have to travel halfway around the globe to do it; they didn't have to apply a fortune or even have the nerve to lift the debris. All that high teach students coast to coast had to do to make a difference was to fill a backpack.

That's right: a backpack--one undivided with pens, pencils, notebooks, and markers. Each package was part of "We've Got Your Back," a program sponsored through the nonprofit organization Do Something, Inc. Their initiative helped thousands of pupils in the South who had to evacuate their households and attend new schools when Hurricane Katrina hit this past August.

"From California to Connecticut and back down to Florida, 'We've Got Your Back' is everywhere.... We calm received a shipment from Saint Albert denomination in Canada," says Emily Luke an associate with Do Something, Inc.

Do Something, Inc. worked with Nickelodeon to memorize the word out about "We've Got Your Back," and it didn't take drawn out before the donations started pouring in. by the agency of the end of September, observers had donated over 4,000 backpacks, which were shipped to Hogg Middle instruct in Houston, Texas for distribution. And when Hurricane Rita threatened the area for a other time just weeks later, Do Something, Inc. plant up another backpack "hub" at Ponchatoula High sect (PHS) in Louisiana.

"When kids move through something painful, it be perceiveds good to know that other kids support them," says Luke "As bookish mans across the country stuff backpacks they feel that they are honestly making a difference."

The scholars each had their own reasons for becoming involved. near like 17-year-old Daniel Stevens from PH donated simply because they felt it was their responsibility to "extend [their] blessings to those in need"

Other bookish mans including 14-year-old Keegan Flynn, had family members who were affected by way of Hurricane Katrina: "[My relatives] were fortunate enough to have resources that will carry them [i]or[/i] part of to the other a period of time, if it were not that I wondered what would become of the public who didn't. I wanted to help in any way I could" says Keegan, who is a freshman at Rye High seminary in Rye, New York.

Rebecca Deich, a 17-year-old PH bookish man had been temporarily relocated because of Hurricane Katrina. She knew to what extent it felt to have to leave her fireside and when she returned to Ponchatoula and learned about the "We've Got Your Back" program, she knew she had to help.

"1 had left my things at home; I had nothing," Rebecca recalls. "I remember feeling alienated from the other pupils When I came back to PH I was eager to help."

And the more scholars like these wanted to help, the more creative they got Keegan sent not at home e-mails and set up bins, enlisting the help of his mate students, friends, and family--including his 10-year-old sister--to muster backpacks. Others held bake sales to raise riches or charged school supplies as admission to parties. Whatever they did, the bookish mans agreed on one thing: the price of a pens and notebooks was a small single to pay for knowing they had helped others in such a manner much.

"A smile, a handshake, and a not many school supplies really helped [displaced students] adjust to their recent environment. The smile on their faces was worth way more than the amount of time it took to prepare their bags," says Stevens

You can make a difference, too! Check revealed Do Something, Inc.'s various service efforts at www.dosomething.org.

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