Students in St. Bonaventure’s education honor society are extending a grateful thank-you to the campus and Olean communities for supporting the Fill the Pack school supply drive.

“The drive would not have been such a success without everyone’s support,” said Victoria Cleary, president of the Xi Nu chapter of Kappa Delta Pi at the university.

Cleary and other honor society members dropped off backpacks, notebooks, pencils, crayons, Expo markers, classroom snacks and other supplies last week to the Olean City School District. The supplies will be distributed to classrooms for the remaining months of the school year.

In February, Kappa Delta Pi hosted Olean Interim Superintendent Karen Geelan at a men’s basketball game against Rhode Island to kick off the drive. The group placed donation boxes on campus, in the Olean community and created an Amazon Wish List.

“We created our Amazon Wish List based on teacher needs throughout the whole district. Superintendent Geelan was overjoyed to see the amount of Amazon donations we had received,” Cleary said.

Approximately 430 items were donated.

“I would like to say a big thank-you to the Bona family for their support and donations. I would also like to thank Tops and The Paper Factory for their support of Fill the Pack,” Cleary said. Many Olean community members dropped off their donations at the two businesses.

This project was funded, in part, by a grant to KDP from a local community philanthropic fund.

Previous Xi Nu community activities have included literacy workshops for pre-school groups, a Halloween “Trunk or Treat” literacy event for early childhood groups, costumed “Read with Us” afternoon for early childhood centers, and a teaching materials exchange for SBU education majors.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Report’s 2022 college rankings edition.