The Fenestration and Glazing Industry Alliance (FGIA) partnered with World Vision, a humanitarian organization helping children, families and their communities overcome poverty and injustice, to provide school supplies to in-need children during the 2023 FGIA Hybrid Fall Conference (September 18-21). Together, the two organizations assembled and donated 240 backpacks filled with school supplies for students.
“Since 1981, World Vision has partnered with communities in the U.S. to create environments in which all children are healthy, educated, cared for, protected and thriving,” said Jack Laverty, World Vision Director of Corporate Engagement. “This endeavor has led us to work with some of our nation’s most vulnerable populations, where poverty is high and opportunities are limited—including urban, rural, migrant, immigrant and Native American communities. Our work focuses on empowering communities for holistic transformation, through programs and resources that support kids and families.”
Per Laverty, World Vision has partnered with 3,273 schools, communities and faith-based organizations in the U.S. to ensure that people in underserved communities have resources and services to help them succeed. World Vision has served 3.59 million children and adults in the U.S. and distributed more than 116,000 pallets of resources, valued at more than $206 million, both domestically and internationally.
“This week, FGIA is contributing to this effort with the School Tools Backpack Build,” said Laverty. “The packs will be combined with other valued items being shipped out to local communities to help children.”
World Vision works with two different affiliate partners in the Colorado area, the host state of the FGIA Fall Conference: Emmanuel Baptist Church in the Colorado Springs area and Iglesias Victory in the Northglenn area. With the product World Vision is providing, these affiliates have been able to serve over 8,000 beneficiaries in the past eight months, according to Laverty, with reach having significantly grown in rural and urban areas.
“I have been that child in class, too embarrassed to ask for help, when my family could not afford to buy me the school supplies I needed for class,” said Laverty. “I have known students who won’t complete homework because they don’t have the school supplies needed for the task. And thankfully, I have seen firsthand the smile on a child’s as they receive their first ever, new school supply item through kits like the ones FGIA assembled during this conference. Thank you, FGIA, for committing to this kit build and making a difference for students who otherwise may go without these needed supplies.”
For more information about FGIA and its activities, visit FGIAonline.org.
