Delta Dental of Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana employees helped kick off the school year in a positive way, donating more than $10,000 in funds and school supplies for students.

In Michigan, employees delivered more than $5,000 in monetary and supply donations for St. Vincent Catholic Charities Operation Backpack, a program that’s helped provide kids with school supplies since 2004. Delta Dental’s corporate citizenship team added another $5,000 to the STVCC’s Operation Backpack as well as providing calculators, water bottles and toothbrushes to fill each backpack. Staff volunteers helped sort school supplies and fill donated backpacks.

Karis Elliot, business solutions project administrator, and her team helped supply six backpacks – three for elementary, two for middle and one for high school.

“It was exciting and fun to help out in this way,” Karis said. “I used to be an educator, I know how hard it is for students and teachers to have enough school supplies to facilitate learning.”

In southeast Michigan, nearly $1,000 in school supplies were collected for The Konnection, a Detroit-based mentoring program designed to encourage and empower kids to improve school performance and attendance.

Delta Dental employees in Indiana donated nearly $400 to Teachers’ Treasures, an organization dedicated to providing teachers with school supplies that students need.  In addition to the monetary support, nearly 600 toothbrushes were donated and delivered by Delta Dental staff.

Ohio employees at Delta Dental’s Cleveland, Dublin and Cincinnati offices teamed up to provide more than $600 in donations for school supplies including gifts to the Bedford school district near Cleveland, Franklin County Children Services and Crayons to Computers, an organization that works to level the playing field in the classroom to ensure teachers can provide their students in need the tools to succeed in school.