As the economy throughout Silicon Valley continues to surge and accumulate wealth throughout our communities, it has become more important than ever for us to give back to those in less fortunate positions than ourselves. As affluent as our communities are, there are families and children who are in need, and it’s a responsibility for those participating in the region’s prosperity to assist these people.
David N.P Hopkins
Thankfully, Sunnyvale Community Services gives us an opportunity to give back each summer with Head-To-Toe: Backpack Day, their annual back-to-school program.
Donations to the program help provide 1,800 low-income school children in Sunnyvale with much-needed backpacks, school supplies, gift certificates for new shoes, and will also distribute over 3,000 bags of nutritious food during the summer months.
We’re proud that Sares Regis Group of Northern California Education and Community Foundation, in partnership with Hunter Storm and other partners of the CityLine Sunnyvale project, has been able to raise $150,000 that will go towards helping Backpack Day reach its goal for 2018.
Sares Regis Group has had an ongoing collaboration with Hunter Storm and the city of Sunnyvale through the development of CityLine Sunnyvale, and we reached out to our business partners to help us fund this year’s Backpack Day. The program is closely aligned with our foundation’s emphasis on education and community—Sares Regis Group has previously partnered with schools and given grants to local organizations throughout the Bay Area to help improve local communities where it’s needed most.
Sunnyvale children are scheduled to receive their new backpacks, school supplies, shoe gift cards, food, and more this Friday. We encourage others to support Backpack Day by either volunteering their time or donating to Sunnyvale Community Services here.
Backpack day is just one of a number of initiatives run by Sunnyvale Community Services that support their mission of preventing homelessness and hunger in the local community. There are also many other similarly important non-profits throughout Silicon Valley that are in need of volunteers and donations.
Find a place to volunteer your time or money at volunteermatch.org, or visit charitynavigator.org to find a charity that supports a cause in which you believe.
David N.P Hopkins oversees the operations of the residential development group at Sares Regis, is a co-founding board member of the Mountain View Transportation Management Association and an engineer with degrees from Emory University, Georgia Tech and UC Berkeley. Opinions are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of San Jose Inside. Send op-ed pitches to
je*******@me*******.com
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the headline of this piece is a little deceptive – ” — – chance to give back –” did someone take something from these kids in the first place? Its fine to help up youngsters, indeed a noble gesture. but often the media linguistically twists things in a way that wants to imply some initial wrong doing that needs correcting.
or maybe its just sloppy journalism ???
Save your critical feedback for me and the other SJI/Metro journalists, but please spare the guest columnists who kindly volunteer their time to submit these op-eds.
Unless, of course, the op-ed author is also a politician—then have at it!
> but often the media linguistically twists things in a way that wants to imply some initial wrong doing that needs correcting.
Good eye, Mr. Biquitous.
This is just bread and butter left-wing politics, right out of the left-wing playbook, Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”.
Objectively, the technique is called “passive aggression”: making a “benign” statement that reasonable people might agree with, wrapped around an implied accusation or assignment of blame.
Mr. Hopkins may not intend to be “passive aggressive”, or even realize that he’s being passive aggressive, but such has been the success of the nihilist left that they have made their corrosive and malignant behaviors the template for our everyday politics and social conversations.
OMG can anybody do or say anything in this country anymore that isn’t criticized to the Nth degree by the “other side”? Why can’t people just accept this for what it is, helping others out, and leave their political opinions and views at the door? This does’t feel like some left-wing conspiracy attempt to blame the right for all the ills of the country. It looks like it is just giving backpacks and school supplies to kids that may actually need them. Try to chill out a bit, you’ll be much happier for it.
Nice work David
JdR
That’s the spirit ^_^
> It looks like it is just giving backpacks and school supplies to kids that may actually need them.
Mr. De Ruiter:
So, whose fault is it that these poor, innocent, blameless children NEED backpacks?
A. Barack Obama
B. Jerry Brown
C. Dianne Feinstein
D. Dave Cortese
E. Donald Trump
Is this an entirely privately funded giving program, or do the taxpayers get stuck for part of the tab?
Why not eliminate the redundant city employees who perform make work that does not benefit the tax and rate payers? How about charging the select city executives the going interest rate on their city backed loans? [remember the City Manager with a 45 year loan from the city (read, rate and tax payers) at essentially 0%?] I would like that interest rate.
Then some of that money could be earmarked for the less fortunate whose parents cannot support them or be returned to the people who paid the bills.
But, it is amazing to see people in million dollar houses lining up in the bread lines at the local churches every week. It is a question of priorities.
i didn’t mean to make a big deal out of this. “A helping hand with a school back pack” would have been just as effective a headline without subtly implying that something was taken from the kids in the first place. “HEY YOU – GIVE THAT KID HIS BACKPACK BACK”.
But the article contains other shame/guilt inducing pronouncements ” it’s a responsibility for those participating in the region’s prosperity to assist these people” Now – it YOUR responsibility – – – – I strive to be a good citizen – I donate time/$ to various causes – – I just think its a little High Handed for someone to tell me – – “its my responsibility” – – who gave David the moral authority to make such judgments?
Again I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, just wanted to suggest that letting people make up their own mind about a situation rather than guilt tripping is usually a better approach to rallying for a cause – as worthy as it is. And Jenn – take a Happy Pill today – – its all good
How about giving the parents of these kids they can’t afford to bring up properly some information from Planned Parenthood. I’m tired of paying to help support other people’s excess kids they never should have had because they cannot support them properly.
Yeah John, it’s frustrating that parents have kids when they have no plan/idea how they are going to properly support them. I mean if they can’t provide backpacks/calculators/etc that probably cost less than a couple hundred bucks, the mind reels at what else those kids must be missing.
However, it doesn’t seem like any of this is the fault of the kids. That’s the conundrum.
BTW, I hope you’re not a republican, b/c we know that they want to fully defund Planned Parenthood for some specious reason or another.