Still shot from video by The Circle of Love Foundation
The Circle of Love Foundation raises money to provide school supplies for needy children.
The Circle of Love Foundation, a Hoover-based nonprofit that helps children going through crises and their families, this week began its effort to collect school supplies for the 2022-23 school year.
The organization, run by Hoover resident Doris Phillips, is asking the public for donations to provide 500 backpacks with needed school supplies to children staying in five Birmingham-area shelters. That would be a 70% increase from the number of backpacks given last year, the organization said.
Last year, the average cost of a backpack with school supplies was $75 per student, but this year that has risen to $90 per elementary school student and $115 per high school student, according to The Circle of Love Foundation.
The foundation is partnering with the following shelters: First Light, Grace House, Jessie’s Place, Lovelady Center and Olivia’s House.
Phillips, the president of RealSource Title Insurance and Real Estate Closings and chief operating officer of Lake Homes Realty, grew up in poverty just outside of Birmingham and said she knows the deep pain of being forgotten and is committed to prevent it from happening to other children.
Since she founded The Circle of Love Foundation in 2004, the foundation has facilitated the raising of more than $825,000 to provide school supplies and Christmas gifts to needy children.
To donate or for more information about the school supply drive, go to thecircleoflove.org/back-to-school-supplies-drive.