October 11, 2022
The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science helped collect and distribute more than 1,000 new backpacks filled with supplies this fall on behalf of the Cornell Elves Program.
Founded in 1989, the universitywide Cornell Elves Program benefits children in need in Tompkins County. The program focuses on three efforts each year: the Winter Holiday Program, the KozyKids Blanket Bee Program, and the Elves Summer Backpack Program, which began in the fall of 2007. In its first year, the summer backpack program supplied 12 area schools with 284 backpacks. This year, the program supplied 33 Ithaca-area schools with 1,013 new backpacks filled with school supplies for students in grades kindergarten through sixth. School nurses or social workers identify students who would benefit from the Cornell Elves program.
The program’s success is attributed to the collaboration between departments across campus and throughout the community.
If you would like to become an “elf,” or learn more about the programs’ efforts throughout the year, please visit: http://elves.cornell.edu/faq.html
Matt Toner is a communcations specialists for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.