Michigan’s Ice Mountain® 100% Natural Spring Water Team Donates Backpacks to Local Elementary School Students in Need

Thanks to the efforts of a team of committed Ice Mountain® 100% Natural Spring Water employees, 33 elementary students in Reed City, Morley-Stanwood, and Evart, Michigan school districts started their academic year with new backpacks filled with school supplies. This marks the third year the Ice Mountain® brand has supported a backpack program for students in rural school districts near the Stanwood, Michigan Ice Mountain bottling operation. 

“Every child deserves to be prepared with the tools they need for academic success and backpacks are essential for enabling students to complete their schoolwork both in the classroom and at home,” said Mitch Plosz, Ice Mountain’s plant manager. “We take personal pride and joy in providing young area students with backpacks that are full of the supplies they need to feel prepared, confident, and inspired to learn.” 

The backpacks contain all the basic and essential supplies the students need to get the year started right, including crayons, markers, pencils, erasers, 3-ring binders, pocket folders, notebooks, scissors, and glue sticks.  The backpacks were delivered to the elementary schools where grateful staff distributed them to students they identified as needing one. 

(Pictured left to right) R

ich Staples,

Melissa Ready,

Dennis Hommerson,

Ashlee Foster,

Brandy Root,

Jacob Knox and

Scott VanScoy.

Along with employee donations, funding for the backpacks and supplies came from a plant-wide silent auction of used items around the factory. Employees were able to bid on a variety of items, like gently used file cabinets, Christmas decorations, office supplies, and more. The silent auction raised awareness and a sense of camaraderie, generated the extra dollars needed to ensure abundant supplies and special back packs, and enabled employees to purchase some useful items while clearing some much-needed space in the factory. 

“We are part of a great community that cares about kids and their futures. It all starts with a good education and every little bit helps,” said Tara Lovejoy, a school social worker at Morley-Stanwood Elementary School.  “We want students to know they can do whatever their classroom teachers ask of them because they have the tools to do it, and they can achieve good things throughout their lives through learning. We appreciate Ice Mountain’s thoughtful and timely help.”

“We all can recall that excitement we felt at the start of a new school year and arriving at school with our backpacks full of supplies,” said Ice Mountain’s Erin Gilmore, who each year organizes the team’s backpack donation efforts. “That memory inspires us to help make sure the new school year is special for kids that may come from families that want to give their child a strong start, while also needing a little relief from high costs of basic school supplies.”