'Pack the Truck' With School Supplies during August at Robinson Mall

The Mall at Robinson and Falconi's Moon Township Ford are sponsoring Pack the Truck, a 31-day event during August designed to collect school supplies for students who lack the basics as they prepare for a new school year.

To launch the drive, The Mall at Robinson is offering guests a $5 Mall gift card with their donation of a backpack filled with supplies on Aug. 1 at the Fifth Harmony (5H) performance. 

Participants can “pack the Ford truck,” which will be positioned near Grand Court with pencils, crayons, tissue, technology items, calculators, scissors and tape, erasers and notebooks, glue sticks, and personal grooming and hygiene products.

Each day, thousands of students in southwestern Pennsylvania step into their homerooms anxious about the school day. Their pencil cases are empty. Their book bags are unfilled. Their desks are bare. They are lacking even the most basic school supplies. 

That’s why The Education Partnership created Homeroom Heroes, a program dedicated to connecting companies to classrooms in an effort to solve these educational inequities.

From July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013, The Education Partnership served more than 6,200 students and 620 teachers, distributed more than $850,000 worth of school and classroom supplies, expanded key alliances and partnerships to increase program impact and received more than 4,580 hours of support from 845 volunteers.

“The Education Partnership’s Homeroom Heroes project calls upon each of us to consider what life might be like for a child who faces a school day without the things they need for school,” said Shema Krinsky, director of marketing at The Mall at Robinson. “While we’re back-to-school shopping, we are all reminded that we have an opportunity to support local families who need our help.”

The Education Partnership is dedicated to addressing educational inequities by providing and enabling access to the tools and resources necessary to support teachers and enhance a student’s ability to learn and succeed. 

The organization, based in Pittsburgh, serves a geographic area encompassing six counties—Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland.