For the past five years, Alex Ng of Wellington High School, and Andre Ferreira and Devin Wallace of Royal Palm Beach High School have been providing Pleasant City Elementary School with backpacks and school supplies.
The boys organized the collection by texting their friends and utilizing the powerful social media of Facebook to network and spread the word. They received donations from students attending Palm Beach Central, Seminole Ridge and William T. Dwyer high schools, as well as many other schools. “I saw a girl walking around the school with a Publix shopping bag carrying her books when I first visited the school five years ago for a holiday toy drive, and offered to do a backpack drive for them,” Ng said.
So Ng contacted his friends, Ferreira and Wallace, to help out. “I will try to pass this on to my sister after I graduate high school, so it can keep going,” Ferreira said.
“Just the fact that a lot of my friends want to help, well, that’s a good thing,” Wallace added.
The boys donate gently used backpacks with new school supplies in the fall. They also visit the school in the winter and hold a toy drive.
Above: Alex Ng, Andre Ferreira and Devin Wallace fill the backpacks.
