ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Around 100 bikers rolled into the Rock Island-Milan School District's annual Ready to Rock the School Year event on Sunday.
The motorcyclists rode around the Quad Cities area for the eighth annual benefit ride, 'Bikers 4 Backpacks.' The ride helps raise money and collect school supplies for students in the Rock Island-Milan School District.
In order to participate in the ride, each biker donated at least one backpack stuffed with school supplies for the kids.
Donated supplies include gluesticks, scissors, calculators, colored pencils, folders, notebooks, loose leaf paper, pencil boxes, markers and crayons.
"There's a lot of kids out there, they can't control their own destiny at that age," said Bikers 4 Backpacks board member 'The Gus.' "Getting the right foot forward right out of the gate is important. So if we can control that a little bit for them, that's what we want: to provide an opportunity."
Bikers 4 Backpacks will be holding a donation presentation on Saturday, July 30 from 2-5 p.m. at The Stern Center in Rock Island. There, they'll be presenting the First Day Fund with a check and distributing the collected backpacks.
This school year, parents plan to spend $661 per child, on average, for back-to-school shopping, according to Deloitte’s 2022 back-to-school survey. That includes clothing and school supplies and is up 8% from 2021 and 27% from 2019. On average, school supplies cost 7% more this year.
The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 3 for students in the Rock Island-Milan School District.
