A great BIG thank you from CROSS Outreach Back-to-School Giveaway 2025!

Thank you so very much for your volunteer efforts and resources for our 2025 CROSS Outreach 33rd annual BACK-TO-SCHOOL GIVEAWAY. Last month’s work from you and other generous and committed volunteers created two fun, productive and exciting evenings. We sincerely appreciate your help.

You and the other volunteers quickly and efficiently sorted and packed 1,600 backpacks of school supplies which will be distributed to area school kids aged Head Start-Senior High School!

• 400 backpacks for Head Start-2nd graders;
• 400 backpacks for 3rd-5th graders;
• 400 backpacks for 6th-8th graders;
• and 400 backpacks for 9th-12th graders.

We are very excited that this year’s event was held again in collaboration with our partner Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) food pantries. We are also very appreciative of the assistance from Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation, through donations of toothbrushes, toothpaste, and oral hygiene and education materials.  We are also extremely grateful to Westbancorporation Foundation, Inc., and Variety, The Children’s Charity, for their generous donations to support the CROSS Outreach Back-to-School Giveaway.

If you would like more information about what CROSS Outreach does throughout the year, please contact me, or contact CROSS Outreach at 515-279-8877 or crossoutreachdm@gmail.com, or view our website at www.crossoutreachdm.org.

We are always looking for partnerships within our community, so if you or a company you know would like to be more involved with this program, please contact us.  I am confident we could have filled double or triple the amount of school backpacks and supplies in the two hours for the children and youth in our communities.  Wouldn’t 3,200 or 4,800 backpacks next year be fun?

Thank you, thank you, a million thank yous!

Sincerely,
Lisa Norbury Kilian
Board member CROSS Outreach
515-205-0981
kilianlmfl@gmail.com