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A backpack to help S.F.s homeless deal with hardships
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper)
Posted: April 11th, 2016
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-backpack-to-help-S-F...
Homelessness isnt backpacking. Its not military marching. But there are aspects of those things that can make a big difference to a penniless drifter. [Philanthropist Ron Kaplan] had a backpack designed specifically for the homeless. He brought 400 of them to hand out for free in San Francisco ... at the the city's one-stop-aid Navigation Center on Mission Street. Earlier in the week they handed out 600 backpacks in Hayward, Oakland and Berkeley. This was the 44th city theyve come to since the pack - called Citypak - was invented with High Sierra Sport Co. in 2012. This sturdy, waterproof, multi-pocketed and security-conscious contraption is ... dignity, acknowledgment, freedom and engagement all rolled into one black bag. I had found that every shelter in America gives out food, clothing, toiletries and the rest, but then homeless people put them in big black trash bags and say goodbye, Kaplan said. So I thought, why not create something that gives them more dignity, that helps them as they try to get their lives together? Fitting tight to the back, with well-padded straps, the pack is made for hours of comfortable carrying. In a bottom pocket is a waterproof, military-style poncho that covers the entire person and backpack. Were always getting suggestions to make adjustments, so its changed as we go, Kaplan said. When I first started doing this, I thought I would just make about 200 and walk around Chicago handing them out, he said. Now, by the end of this year we will have given out 22,500 all over the country.
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