York County volunteers host school sendoff event with free backpacks
Rory Ives organizes the backpacks during a giveaway in Biddeford on Friday. The “summer sendoff event” had backpacks with school supplies, lawn games and free ice cream. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
BIDDEFORD — Jace LaPointe dipped a plastic circle into a tray of bubbles and spun around while wearing a new navy blue backpack Friday afternoon. The 14-year-old watched the bubbles float to the ground and excitedly went back for more.
Behind him at Rotary Park, dozens of other backpacks were stacked, waiting to be claimed by kids gearing up to start school soon. Each backpack was provided by the Volunteers of America’s Northeast branch through the nonprofit’s Uplifting Families Together initiative.
Jace LaPointe, 14, plays with bubbles during Friday’s backpack giveaway. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
The project — which was started thanks to a grant from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in June 2025 — aims to provide support to families of incarcerated individuals. Uplifting Families Together runs reunification services and parenting classes for families involved with the York County Jail.
Friday’s backpack giveaway was a reflection of the wraparound support services the project provides for children, Uplifting Families Together Senior Parent Resource Navigator Tina Kenney said.
Madison Burke, the project’s evaluation partner through the Southern Maine Catherine Cutler Institute, said the event was about “bringing community members together, providing them with the resources they need to succeed in school and beyond.”
The event was open to any family or child in Maine that needed supplies to kick off the school year.
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Less than an hour into the event, volunteers had already given away a few dozen backpacks, filled with pens, notebooks, markers and other school supplies. Some families had registered in advance, but more came after hearing about the opportunity online.
“It’s a blessing,” Jace’s mother, Megan Vieira, said of the event, smiling and spinning a Hula-Hoop on the ground with her daughter.
Luis Gutierrez, who starts seventh grade next week, picks out a light blue backpack for himself Friday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
Jace’s family has been struggling since moving to Biddeford six months ago.
“It’s just been really hard for us. (Jace’s) father is incarcerated,” Vieira said. “We’re just not doing too good right now, so this event really helped us out today because I wasn’t going to be able to have anything for him to start school.”
Her son — who has a condition called childhood apraxia of speech, which makes it hard for him to speak — is excited to begin high school next week. The new notebook he found when he peeked inside his loot-filled backpack was particularly exciting. He’ll use it for his favorite subject: history.
Since Uplifting Families Together launched in 2025, parent education courses or other services at York County Jail have enrolled 106 people. The team has helped guide 26 people into the community following their release and has reunited six families. Eleven others have been able to organize regular visits with their families, Kenney said.
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She and her team use data from the courses and resources Uplifting Families Together provides to determine where the biggest needs are. Burke said that when looking at the data and past research, they found that young people who have incarcerated parents have worse outcomes when it comes to school attendance and grades.
“One of the big things that we were hoping to address is not just to meet people and bring people together, but also to help kids stay in school and be excited about school,” Burke said.
Jennie Ferrare hands an ice cream to John Lombard and his nephew Eli. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
Other factors, like the rising cost of school supplies, compound families’ difficulty finding resources, including those who don’t have incarcerated loved ones.
John Lombard came to the event from Lewiston with his wife, his sister-in-law and his nieces and nephews. After a contentious school budget year in Lewiston, he said he and his family, who are homeless, lost some resources that helped support their kids’ schooling.
“I’m glad that they’re actually here, because in Lewiston, I can’t just go out and buy things,” Lombard said. He thinks programs like Uplifting Families Together can help direct children onto the right path, even with the smallest of acts — like giving away free backpacks.
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Tagged: back to school 2026, cost of living, homelessness, poverty, York County Jail, york county Maine
Isabelle Oss is a community reporter covering Kittery, Berwick, North Berwick, South Berwick, York and Ogunquit. Born and raised in Colorado, she moved to Maine in April 2026. Isabelle holds a master’s. More by Isabelle Oss
