Volunteers fill backpacks for children

Volunteers gathered May 13 at Coshocton Regional Medical Center to help fill thousands of backpacks with school supplies for children.

The backpacks will be distributed to children at the start of the 2026-27 school year. This is the hospital’s sixth year organizing the project.

The bulk of the volunteers came from Fanatics, which has helped with the project in the past.

“They have a global impact day where they shut down for the day and head out in the local community for the day to do volunteer work,” said Kaylee Andrews, director of business development and marketing at CRMC. “We get them for four hours, and they will get 2,600 backpacks filled. They are a huge help with the program. We will have some smaller groups come in to work on the rest.”

The backpacks are filled with basic school supplies for children in preschool through sixth grade. They go to students in the Coshocton County public and private schools and those in Newcomerstown. CRMC is the main sponsor of the project, and several others from the community assist each year.

Valerie Trull was one of the many volunteers from Fanatics.

“I like to be able to help out the community,” she said. “It’s nice we are allowed to do this. They shut down the whole building, and we don’t do anything today except volunteer.”