Beaumont, CA – The Beaumont Unified School District’s boardroom briefly took on the appearance of an Amazon Fulfillment Center after volunteer employees from the PSP1 Amazon Warehouse set up an assembly line and began filling 330 backpacks with 1,980 school supplies.
The event was made possible thanks to an Amazon community grant to provide elementary and middle school students in Beaumont USD with backpacks and school supplies, such as erasers, pencils, rulers, crayons, and notebooks. The District’s Student Attendance Technician Edgar Garcia applied for the grant and worked in partnership with Keith Kozma, the PSP1 Amazon Warehouse’s General Manager’s Administrative Assistant to coordinate the project after the grant was received. The PSP1 Amazon Warehouse is located in Beaumont, California and is an Amazon Fulfillment Center.
The Amazon volunteers expertise in packing and shipping was on full display. With thoughtfully mapped stations, backpacks were quickly filled. The entire process was scheduled to take two hours. However, Kozma quickly warned they were ahead of schedule by more than an hour. In approximately 40 minutes, all 1,980 supplies were stuffed into backpacks, boxed, and stacked against the walls.
“I have four kids in the [Beaumont Unified School District] and I know what it is like to struggle with kids not always being able to get the supplies they need,” shared Sonia Saenz, an Amazon employee of ten years who volunteered to fill backpacks. Amazon employee and volunteer April Hawthorne echoed this statement saying, “I grew up where I didn’t have a lot of privilege. And I know in the community there are other people in the same predicament.”
The Amazon volunteers' reasons for filling the backpacks align with the reasons Garcia sought the grant. “We are deeply committed to ensuring that students receive an equitable education and these backpacks are one of many ways we can support our families,” explains Garcia.
Dozens of iconic brown boxes decorated with printed smiles will soon be delivered in the coming weeks to the District’s principals where they will be handed out to students. Principal Idali Lopez at Palm Innovation Academy shared, “Backpacks are essential to our student’s ability to stay organized and the school supplies will ensure every student will be able to continue their learning at home.”