President of the Senate M. Teresa Paiva Weed (D-Dist. 13,  Newport, Jamestown) and the Office Depot Foundation are pleased to announce that Newport area students have been chosen to receive colorful sackpacks containing essential school supplies as part of the Foundation’s 2011 National Backpack Program in partnership with the National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL).

President Paiva Weed will be presenting approximately 300 sackpacks at several Newport locations this week. On Tuesday, Aug. 2, she will deliver packs to the Martin Luther King Center on 20 Dr. Marcus Wheatland Boulevard at 10:30 a.m. On Wednesday, Aug. 3, she will make her first stop at the Newport Recreation Center in Vernon Park at 11:30 a.m., followed by a 12:45 p.m. visit to the Boys and Girls Club of Newport, located at 11 Miner Road in Saunderstown.

“This is a great program that will help hundreds Rhode Island students as they prepare for the start of a new school year,” said President Paiva Weed. “Many families have struggled to afford school supplies in this difficult economic time, making public-private partnerships such as this even more important. I am pleased to work with Office Depot and the National Foundation for Women Legislators on this program to provide students with essential back-to-school supplies that many take for granted.”

The drawstring-style sackpacks are available in five different two-color combinations, with each bag containing a zippered pouch with essential school items, such as a ruler, crayons, a pen, a pencil, a pencil sharpener and an eraser.

By the end of this year, Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation will have helped more than 2.5 million children since the program began in 2001. NFWL has been partnering with the backpack program for six years and this year the Office Depot Foundation will provide then National Foundation for Women Legislators with more than 15,000 sackpacks for distribution by women elected officials in all 50 states.

The Office Depot Foundation will also donate sackpacks to children in partnership with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, the National Court Appointed Special Advocates Association (CASA), Feed the Children, the Kids In Need Foundation, the Little Red Wagon Foundation, Samaritan’s Feet International and the Tony Stewart Foundation. These organizations focus on education, domestic abuse, national disaster relief and other vital issues and will assist in the distribution of sackpacks to children both across the country and internationally.

For more information on the National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL), visitwww.womenlegislators.org, and for more information on the Office Depot Foundation, visitwww.officedepotfoundation.org.