I blame bigotry, ignorance, and people not willing to get involved. For instance, if it came up at the charity, I bet not one person IRL would have said,
“You Bigoted Ignorant SOB! What Amoebic Slime ancestor squirted YOU out from under a Rock?”
Charities: Bringing out the Best in people since we decided to solve all of our systemic social issues with Bake Sales.
Honestly, when you’re running a giveaway like that, the best items are the ones you roll your eyes at. Because you know you will be giving out 150 backpacks, the vast majority of which will be some form of standard blue/red/green. . . and the kids all want the cool backpack . . . and there’ll be a run for it . . . and they’ll fight over it . . . and all the kids who didn’t get that one will walk away disappointed instead of being happy that they got his great gift which was intended to make their school year start off right but is now just making them feel like they got the crappy end of the stick as usual . . . and there’s a very good chance that before the school year ends, the kid with the good backpack will get beat up and have it stolen from them.
So yeah, she’s probably just been doing this for a while, and knows what to expect.
TruCelt, is there something you need to get off your chest? We’re here for you. 
I was just at Spencer’s today, speak of the devil. I was buying backpacks, even. Believe it or not I went to TWO separate locations. 50% off a $15 clearance backpack is a good deal!
I’m sure kids still shop there, but in the 90’s when I was a teenager there was a very strong “manufactured edginess” to it. Actual head shops had cooler clothes and decor but you couldn’t very well ask your mom to drive you and your 14 year old friends there.
It’s definitely the complete opposite of Claire’s Boutique though. They’re both ubiquitous mall stores but that’s the only thing they have in common.
:: twitch ::
What’s a “backpack drive”?
It’s a community-driven appeal for people to donate back-to-school supplies for distribution to kids from families who might struggle to provide them.
In my area, it’s not unusual for the list of required school supplies to top $100. That doesn’t even include the backpack. It’s a huge hit for the parents, and incredibly embarrassing for any child who doesn’t have them.
So backpack drives are a way to provide what the kids/schools need.
OK, I get that, but why did the OP buy new bags? Isn’t the whole point of charity drives to give away your old stuff?
Sometimes, but not always. Think of Toys for Tots, and their requirement that you give new, unopened toys. I imagine the school supplies thing is similar.
So beggers CAN be choosers.
In this country, yes. We don’t want beggars to feel like beggars, it’s bad for their self esteem. :rolleyes:
Seriously though, when it comes to children who through no fault of their own need the help of others we should do better than to let them dress in rags, and in the culture we have created a used backpack for a child in school is equivalent to that. I’d rather we fixed our culture, but I don’t want to make poor kids pay the price of our failings either.
Yeah, something like this was the first thing I thought of as the explanation for the dirty looks mentioned in the OP: that the backpacks were too cool.
We get older but teenagers always stay about the same age. There are apparently a few locations in the Boston area but I have never been in one. However, my daughters love shopping in them when we go to malls in the Dallas area. I do too for that matter. I realized that I finally have enough money now to buy all the tacky neon lights, pranks, and fake sex toys that I want but I have refrained…thus far.
Cultural differences, I guess. I mean, I’m not even buying my own kid a new bag this year - the old one’s still fine.
I didn’t think anyone still shopped at Spencer’s Gifts.
Please be assured there were no sex toys in the backpacks, unless some teenagers could get really, really creative with papier-mache writing paper.
Yeah, but it’s your kid. The old backpack’s undoubtedly fine for him or her. Some other kid whose family can’t afford to buy them a backpack at all might appreciate getting a new backpack. It’s probably the first new item they’ve gotten in a long time that previously didn’t belong to someone else.
No, the whole point is to help someone less fortunate than you. Ideally, you shouldn’t donate to charity anything that you would want to use yourself. Poor kids have enough strikes against them in my country. Making sure they have school supplies is one small thing that can fight some of that inequality. I bought the backpacks at Spencer’s because1.) I would have thought those backpacks were cool when I was a teenager, 2.) they were 50% this weekend and 3.) the kids in my family assured me that though they were buying their own backpacks from Hot Topic the ones Spencer had were still acceptable (none dweeb or otherwise embarrassing in teenage culture).
Givers can be choosers.
Life’s not fair, and as a result of that I have a much better life than I deserve. Why not spread that around? I buy my kids nice school supplies, why would I donate any less?