Church handed out free school bags to new school pupils

Aalborg City Church handed out free Lego school bags to 70 future schoolchildren from needy families. This year was the fourth time the awards took place.

This week, thousands of children have had their very first day of school. A day of butterflies in the belly, pointy pencils - and boozy school bags. At least for most of them. Because not every parent can afford to pull money out of a squeezed budget for a new, smart school bag.
That's why Aalborg City Church handed out 70 brand-new Lego school bags to children in the new 0 classes on Sunday, August 12. This is the fourth year that the church distributes school bags to school debutants, and coordinator Lasse Nordstrøm has been involved from the very beginning.

- We got the idea when we sat and evaluated the distribution of Christmas aid that Aalborg City Church has been running for the past six or seven years. The families that we come into contact with through the Christmas Aid not only experience a tight economy in the run-up to Christmas, but all year round, and we came to talk about the fact that buying a new school bag had to be a big expense for such a family as well,” he says.

Aalborg City Church has a cooperation with the municipality, which means that all new schoolchildren in the municipality from the municipality are sent information about the possibility of being awarded a free school bag if you have tight finances. Together with people from the municipality, the church reviews the applications and selects those who should receive a school bag. In practice, so far it has been virtually all applicants, says Lasse Nordstrøm.
The money for the school bags has been collected by Aalborg City Church during its church services and partly received from the association Charity Center, and according to Lasse Nordstrøm, they buy the bags at a “good price” directly from the manufacturer. From the church, 12-14 volunteers were also involved in making the distribution a festive experience with free sausages, bread, slushice, bouncy castle and “The cheerful kitchen”, where the children could smash cups, plates, bowls and more.

- We are a small group in the church that works with various social initiatives. My responsibilities with the school bags are very seasonal — I start preparations at the end of May and immediately before the first day of school in August we finish. Other areas take longer and require more volunteers — this applies, for example, to the distribution of Christmas aid, he explains.
- I do it because it is wonderful to experience the joy that people get when you give them a little hand. You benefit from doing something for others. As a church, we want to be part of the solution to some of the problems in society. We have a co-responsibility to lift people who need an extra hand,” he says, adding:
- And if others would like to start handing out school bags, we are happy to share our experiences.
JL
Photo: Alborg Citykirke
Video: Christoffer Fryd