Annual Initiatives
Helping kids thrive in every season
Gear Up For Winter
All children deserve to have the essentials they need to stay warm and safe, whether they are at home, at school, or at play. Yet for more than 20 million kids across the country, they do not have appropriate winter gear and their safety is at risk during the harsh winter months.
Cradles to Crayons’ Gear Up for Winter initiative distributes warm coats and other essentials to families who need them most before harsh weather conditions become an emergency. Support for our Gear Up for Winter initiative ensures children stay warm and safe all winter long!
Gear Up for Baby
Cradles to Crayons’ year-round Gear Up for Baby initiative, presented by Cuties® by First Quality®, focuses on collecting and distributing essential items for infants and toddlers, including clothing, diapers, wipes, and more. Support for Gear Up for Baby ensures that by providing these essential items, Cradles to Crayons can ease the burden on caregivers choosing between paying rent or buying these critical items for the children in their care.
Diapers are a baby’s most essential piece of clothing, yet 1 in 2 U.S. families lack the resources to afford the high cost of diapers and keep their baby clean, dry, and healthy. Help protect our most vulnerable population.
Spring Greening
Our Spring Greening initiative gives a second life to the new and nearly new clothing, shoes, books, and toys tucked away in your kids’ closets and drawers. By placing them in the hands of families and children who truly need them, those who support our work by donating children’s items are also helping our environment by keeping perfectly usable goods out of crowded landfills.
Ready for Learning
A child needs to be emotionally and physically prepared in order to succeed in school. Many children lack the tools they need to translate their knowledge and creativity into confidence and academic success.
To help alleviate the effects of poverty on school readiness, our Ready for Learning initiative provides local children in low-income and homeless situations with the school supplies they need to be able to participate fully in class and do homework. The initiative is anchored by our annual Backpack-A-Thon® volunteer events, which see hundreds of volunteers—primarily corporate teams—fill tens of thousands of backpacks with age-appropriate school supplies.
The filled backpacks, along with packages containing clothing, shoes, and more, are then distributed to kids in need, giving them the tools and confidence they need to arrive at school ready, confident, and excited to learn.
