For many families in Tulsa, the back-to-school season can be financially challenging. Buying backpacks, school supplies, and new clothes can quickly become expensive, especially for families with more than one child.
At Graves McLain, we want to make a difference in a big way in our local community. We started the Free Backpack Program with the mission to donate a free, brand new backpack to students at as many Tulsa Public Schools as possible at the beginning of each school year. The goal is for each of these backpacks to include necessary school supplies to try to avoid the financial burdens placed on families.
The Oklahoma Association for Justice (OAJ) and it’s 500+ trial lawyer membership around the State of Oklahoma support and help fund the Backpack Program. It is spearheaded and executed by Graves McLain in Tulsa and Maples Nix & Diesselhorst in Oklahoma City and Edmond.
This important and powerful annual initiative is supported by many organizations, including the Oklahoma Association for Justice, the Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa Public Schools, Partners in Education, All Souls Church, and Gatesway Foundation.
The 2021 school year kickoff was a huge success. We donated free, brand-new backpacks to every student at Dolores Huerta Elementary, McClure Elementary, Unity Learning Academy, Springdale Elementary, and Emerson Elementary.
Our goal for 2021 was to give away over 2,000 free backpacks, and we reached this goal. Gatesway Foundation was gracious enough to offer up one of its buildings and made it a dedicated space for packing backpacks to achieve this goal.
“The demand is much more than we can serve. If we could do ten schools and 4,000 backpacks, there would still be more kids that needed backpacks and supplies,” said Chad McLain. “This is the community we serve, and we try to protect this community and to give back in this way to a needy population. I can’t think of something that exemplifies that more.”
We want to do this each year, so we are actively looking for new sponsors to keep this important initiative going forward. If you would like to become a proud supporter of the Graves McLain Free Backpack Program, please fill out the form below, and someone will contact you with more information.
