Good Neighbors

Company Donates 42 Backpacks to Dunedin Charity

An Oldsmar audio and video marketing company donated 42 children's backpacks to Rob Ditro's Backpack Lady Project last month. It is the Dunedin charity's largest single donation to date.

An Oldsmar audio and video marketing company made the largest single donation to The Backpack Lady Project to date last month. Spectrio donated 42 backpacks to Rob Ditro's charity. The Dunedin man started it last year to honor his late mother's legacy.  "As fortunate as we are to be able to feed and clothe our families, and make sure our kids have what they need in school, we know that there are a lot of families that struggle. We are always looking for ways to give back to our community and this was the perfect opportunity," Noah Blankenship, Spectrio national account executive, is quoted in a news release. Ditro was overjoyed by the generous Oct. 25 generous donation. All backpacks donated to The Backpack Lady Project go to local schools…

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Backpack Donation Needs Already Filled, School Says

The needs of Curtis Fundamental Elementary students were met with backpack and school supply donations from parents before The Backpack Lady Project attempted to donate to the school last week, the principal said Monday.

Curtis Fundamental Elementary's staff was trying to suggest The Backpack Lady Project donate to another school when a recent donation was turned down, the school's principal said Monday. Principal Pam Metz-Easley said she was not on site when Rob Ditro, founder of The Backpack Lady Project, arrived last week to drop off backpacks for students in need, but that a Curtis Fundamental parent had already made a generous donation of backpacks and supplies. Ditro said he was offended when his donation was declined. He dropped by unexpectedly during school hours Thursday with 10 backpacks stuffed with supplies. The front desk ended up accepting two of the backpacks. Metz-Easely said staff at the front desk was merely trying to direct Ditro to a …

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School Declines Surprise Backpack Donation

Curtis Fundamental Elementary School turned away all but two of the 10 backpacks during a surprise drop-off from the Backpack Lady Project on Thursday.

Rob Ditro said he was flabbergasted when he went to drop off 10 backpacks to Curtis Fundamental Elementary School on Thursday. He caught staff at the front desk off guard when he walked into the school with a donation of 10 backpacks, he said. Ditro was half-way through the story behind his non-profit organization, The Backpack Lady Project, which he started to honor his late mother's legacy of anonymous giving, when a one of the women cut him off and said the school of 537 did not have students who would need them. The woman eventually accepted two of the backpacks which also contain school supplies, he said. Curtis Fundamental has 102 students — about 19 percent of its total enrollment — who qualify for free and reduced lunch, according …

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The Backpack Lady Makes Special Delivery

The Backpack Lady Project delivered 10 backpacks to Skycrest Elementary School in Clearwater on Tuesday. The school serves a large population of low-income students, the principal says.

Rob Ditro was nervous before walking into Skycrest Elementary School with 10 new backpacks on Tuesday.  Even though he's told his story dozens of times, he's always afraid he won't be able to get through it without getting emotional. He picked up a pink Hello Kitty backpack loaded with school supplies, unzipped it, showed off some of the contents and started telling his story. Ditro, of Dunedin, is in his second year of The Backpack Lady Project, a non-profit he began as a way to preserve his late mother's legacy. He found after her passing that his mother anonymously delivered two backpacks every year to a Dunedin school for more than a decade. The Project solicits community donations every year around back-to-school shopping time and …

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