Builders stuff backpacks for Sarasota and Manatee Boys & Girls Clubs

Joe Ernst's wife is a stay-at-home mom so his children don't spend a lot of time at the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota, but on July 11, he was more than happy to stuff backpacks for the Stuff the Backpack event at Gold Coast Eagle Distributing.

There was a time when the Boys & Girls Club was a big part of Ernst's life. From the age of 5 through 13, Ernst was enrolled at the Boys & Girls Club on Fruitville Road.

“I learned all my sports there — basketball, football, baseball,” said Ernst, who now is a sales manager for D&D Garage Doors and a member of the Suncoast Builders Association, which sponsored the event. “I have friends (from the club) that I’m still friends with to this day.”

The backpacks will be given to children who are enrolled at Boys & Girls Clubs in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

 The Young Professionals Committee of the Suncoast Builders Association has been stuffing backpacks for the clubs for 10 years. This year’s effort was the biggest yet. The committee raised over $13,000 to stuff and donate 528 backpacks. 

“When we first started this event, we had about five backpacks,” event organizer Jessica Seper said. “This year, our goal was 500, and we exceeded it.” 

This year’s event was bittersweet for Seper. She’s been the chair of the Young Professionals Committee for 10 years and in June, she was hired to serve as the association’s new membership director.

Seper has to transition from being a volunteer to a staff member, so Kim Boynton is stepping into the role of chair and Stuff the Backpack organizer. 

Boynton didn’t attend the Boys & Girls Clubs as a child, but she knows what it’s like to not have a new backpack for the first day of school. She spent the last 10 years focused on building her screen and awning business, 3/8 & Company. Now, she’s ready to pay her success forward. 

“I’m passionate about this,” Boynton said. “I didn’t have anything, and I relied on the people who were older than me. I felt this one.”