Full of Dreams: Local Family Starts GoFundMe Campaign to Raise Money for Pasadena Student Backpacks

There’s nothing quite like starting the new school year off with a new backpack.

John Muir High School Assistant Principal Ricardo Robles, his sister, Becky, and the Robles family said they have started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for backpacks for students in Northwest Pasadena.

“We’ve done this in the past,” Robles said. “We were brought up to give back to the community and my wife and I have passed that along to our children. My son did it when he graduated from High School. But this year, we thought ‘Let’s bump it up.’ So we’re trying to raise $5,000 to buy a thousand backpacks and fill them with school supplies. We’re trying to get students in the Northwest Pasadena area off to a good start to their school year.”

It’s a big boost to have new shoes, new clothing and new equipment for the new school year and having a cool backpack is something all kids want. But equally important are the tools that go inside the backpack and the campaign covers those too.

“One of the big things to start the school year on a good note is having the supplies that you need in the classroom,” Robles said. “We’re looking to buy the backpacks. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the backpacks and then notebooks, pencils and pens that students might need.”

Robles said his family wants transparency in where the money is going and decided that the GoFundMe campaign was a good choice.

“We’re conducting the campaign through GoFundMe because we want to make sure people understand it’s legit we’re not just collecting money to collect it,” Robles said. “We figured GoFundMe would be a way to keep track of the money we’re raising. Right now, we’re promoting through social media accounts we have and we’re asking people we know to go through GoFundMe and make a donation.”

Robles has devoted his life to working with young people.

“We all are involved in some way with youth,” he said. “My wife is a teacher, my two oldest children they work in schools. My sister works with foster care youth in a group setting that’s why our focus is about giving back to the students and the community.”

The family is asking for a small donation.

“We’re asking $10 and that’s affordable to people,” Robles said. “We want to make it a grassroots campaign. But of course, we would gladly accept a bigger donation as well.”

For more information go to the Robles’ GoFundMe Page