Essentia Health Supports Student Readiness Ahead of New Academic Year

As summer winds down, Essentia Health team members are again stepping up for a good cause to help area students and their families be prepared for the first day of school.

Essentia is proud to support and sponsor the 27th annual United Way of Cass-Clay School Supply Drive. From May 19 through July 28, thousands of essential school supplies were collected throughout the Fargo-Moorhead area.

This year’s goal is to provide 6,500 local students with a backpack and a set of school supplies. As a “Hero Sponsor” for the fourth year in a row, Essentia contributed $15,000 to help meet this goal.

“Without the generosity of Essentia Health, it would have been really, really challenging for us to increase our goal by 500 backpacks this year,” said Tiff McShane, senior director of community engagement at United Way. “Essentia has supported our drive for the last six years and we’ve been able to walk into our drive feeling confident that we have the financial support that we need from our community to reach our goals.”

Essentia volunteers joined others from Corwin Auto and Eastwood Elementary at the FARGODOME the morning of July 31 to kick off the first packing shift of the 2025 drive.

In 90 minutes, volunteers unboxed 1,000 backpacks and filled 878 pencil cases for students in grades K-2 with:

• 13,170 pencils

• 2,634 glue sticks

• 1,756 dry erase markers

• 878 (each) erasers and scissors

Kerri Anderson, program manager for volunteers and guest services with Essentia, was among the group that helped prepare hundreds of colorful cases.

“I enjoy volunteering for this because it works wonders in the community,” said Anderson, who has volunteered with the drive for over 10 years. “It’s an awesome way to represent Essentia and it feels good to just do this.

“I’m always overwhelmed by how many people help,” she added. “A lot of staff give up their time off to come here, too, and I think that says a lot for them to choose to be here.”

The filled backpacks will be available to K-12 students in need who attend school in Cass or Clay counties.

Families are invited to pick up backpacks at the FARGODOME on the following days:

• 4:30-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6

• 4:30-6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7

• 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8

Learn more about the backpack pick up events at unitedwaycassclay.org.