The Story of Enchanted Backpack

Firsthand Knowledge Is Invaluable

Our family wanted to support a quality charter high school system.

The charter system is called Noble, and it operates in Chicago. Noble suggested that we visit a couple of their schools. I will tell you, those days opened my eyes in a whole new way. I spent a couple of days visiting and talking to many young people. In asking a couple dozen of them (one-on-one) where they lived, how they liked their classes, and what they liked best about their high school, I learned that many of these teenagers traveled well over an hour taking two or three buses to get to school. I heard that being a part of the Noble charter system made them feel safe. I saw in action the discipline that was a part of their school day, and I was hugely impressed. It is certainly critical to get these young people into college, but their high school experience was about so much more. At the end of this experience, our family was ready to make a significant contribution. It was heartwarming to know that we could help hundreds of children in need get off the streets, acquire the discipline that helps us all to understand why boundaries exist, and be mentored by people who took the time and really cared.

The lesson learned: you can’t know an organization by reading about it. Go, take the time and visit the organizations where you want to give money and/or time. And revisit often. You can’t really understand what you are supporting without seeing it firsthand. Take the time to fully understand what they do, where they have issues, and how they measure their success. Get a feel for their culture and for their people. That is the critical way to make a meaningful impact.

Another lesson learned: firsthand knowledge of only one potential partner in a project is not enough. We worked hard with Noble, and I was very excited as were my dad and all my children. I will tell you that over the course of eighteen months, we had our hopes built up and crushed three different times. To make a long story short, with each location we were blocked by politicians in our great city. Despite the incredible need, they opposed three different locations and were simply not going to open another charter high school anytime soon. We had not realized the degree to which we needed to understand the politics behind the charter school system and the overall public school system in Chicago.

And while we still support Noble, as I share in the next story, we were unable to move forward with our plans; so we had to switch directions and help support education in other ways.

And the Politicians Said  “No”, So We Started Over: Introducing Enchanted Backpack

As I have said, my dad is ninety-seven. We have always been huge supporters of education, and we wanted to put his name on a charter high school in Chicago and to fund its opening. We also wanted to have a  ͞hands-on͟ connection to helping hundreds of in-need kids in the City of Chicago. We were excited to do this, and the financial commitment was very significant. We worked hard with the Noble charter system, but despite all our efforts, politicians got in the way and stopped us from opening a new school.

So, after this disappointment and still being committed to helping children in need, we did two things: First, we partnered with Big Shoulders in Chicago to underwrite the education of fifty-four children for the next six to nine years (depending on their age). We are excited about this program; we will get to know these kids and will work with the schools to help them get a quality education. We will celebrate their successes and have fun doing so. They are called Lavin Scholars after my dad.

We have also started another charity called Enchanted Backpack. Enchanted Backpack is in its early phases as I write this, but we are excited about the plans. It’s a pretty simple program, but it appeals to us in that it lets us touch teachers and children directly and make a significant difference in their education. We will visit a minimum of fifty schools a year that serve under-resourced kids (and, hopefully, many more annually over the course of time). We have worked with many educators and administrators to identify the core needs, and we will deliver the top-twenty requested school supplies, as well as many hundreds of books to each school for free. We will also deliver art, music, and physical education tools; and we will donate mittens, waterproof gloves, socks, and hats. We have purchased two Sprinter vans that are colorful and are wrapped with our Enchanted Backpack logo. We are excited to drive these vans throughout Chicago bringing critically needed supplies to children and their teachers. With the decline in financial support for education, teachers spend serious money from their own pockets to help equip their classrooms. And the dollars needed are rising. As a society, we don’t pay our teachers all that much, and the first thing a new teacher does is equip a classroom. And all teachers help kids in need.

Our family’s foundation will provide matching grants to support Enchanted Backpack. In year one, we will absorb all of the start-up costs; in future years, we will solicit funds from individuals and corporations and make matching grants as well as absorb all the administrative costs. As a person from the corporate world, what I love about the opportunity to sponsor an Enchanted Backpack van is that 100 percent of the donation goes directly to the schools and a corporation’s employees can come along and help distribute the supplies and make a concrete difference in children’s lives in a single afternoon. I am hoping that soon the good works of Enchanted Backpack will become known, and you just might want to be a contributor. We welcome your time and/or your dollars.

Some key lessons are:

• Don’t let the negatives overpower your plans. Figure out how to get around or through the roadblocks, or start again from scratch. The final concept may be even more fun.
• Ask for help and consult experts. We asked for help from educators and likely adjusted more than 50 percent of our original thinking.
• It’s fun to build something from scratch. Just begin.