In the September 13, 2009 Neighbors section of the Miami Herald, Carrollton student Elizabeth Perez was featured as founder of Backpack Buddies; a project she began in 2006. The goal of this initiative is to collect supplies to benefit school children at L’Ecole Pere Boniface School in Haiti. Elizabeth started the project after hearing stories from Reverend Pere Boniface, a Haitian priest, describing the challenges Haitian children face when attending school because of the extensive poverty throughout the country. School children not only lack supplies, but often do not even have their basic needs met, such as food and clean water. News of these problems impelled Elizabeth to take social action. In 2006, she began to collect school supplies to send to Haiti and has continued to do so since. This year, she collected 2, 455 items to send to the school children.

For more details please contact Development: 305-446-5673 ext. 1252.

Source: The Miami Herald, Sept. 13, 2009 Issue.