TULSA, Okla. — On Thursday, Graves McLain partnered with the Gatesway Foundation to fill backpacks for local students who desperately need school supplies.
"It started a lot smaller,” Sharon VanDyke, practice manager at Graves McLain, said. “It started out as a bit of a friendly competition with a law firm in Oklahoma City and we've taken it and kind of ran with it."
Sharon VanDyke said the firm has partnered with the Gatesway Foundation for the last several years.
“We were just doing one, two or three schools and we could do this process in our office,” VanDyke said. “We can't do this in our office anymore."
- Back-to-school: Visit 2 News Oklahoma's Back-to-School page for stories, school information and start dates.
The foundation had the available space and interest in helping our community, so the partnership was an easy decision.
"We'll, Gatesway Foundation is completely focused on promoting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Elijah Blankenship, chief development officer at Gatesway, said. “To live and work in the community. And I think Graves McLain recognized our mission and saw it in their heart and jumped right toward it. We are open to any project that integrates us with the community. And that's where we need to be. We need to be together with all of us."
The firm works with district leadership at Tulsa Public Schools to figure out what schools need this the most. The program has grown so much in the eight years that 3,000 students will now benefit.
"It feels good to know that there's close to 3,000 kids this year who are going into school with the resources that they need," VanDyke said.
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