A group of Pacific Trails Middle School Junior Optimists, led by member Ava Khossravi, recently embarked on an ambitious project to obtain 100 new backpacks and fill them with school supplies to then be donated to the Monarch School in San Diego. Assisting with the project was Elizabeth Sweetman, campus director of the Carmel Valley unit of the Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) Academy whose guidance and support enabled this project to be successfully completed.

Supplies were ordered, received, and stored until the day the backpacks were to be filled and delivered to the Monarch School. In addition to the 100 new backpacks, school supplies obtained for them included folders, loose leaf paper, spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, erasers, and crayons.

Once all the supplies were received the Pacific Trails Middle School Junior Optimist team set up a backpack-filling assembly line at a local park. Members sorted supplies and methodically filled the backpacks for delivery. The process was smooth and quickly resulted in 100 filled backpacks ready to be donated. With parental assistance the newly filled backpacks were delivered to the Monarch School where they were much appreciated.

The Pacific Trails Middle School Junior Optimist Club is sponsored by the Del Mar – Solana Beach Optimist Club, a youth service organization, whose mission is promoting Optimism as a way of life while helping others to be all they can be. Visit the optimist.org website to learn more about the organization.