Last week, HSA Commercial’s social outreach arm, HSAwareness, assembled and handed off 24 backpacks filled with school supplies to the firm’s longtime partner, Chicago Commons, for the students at Paulo Freire Family Center. HSA works with Chicago Common’s on a number of initiatives throughout the year to benefit the center, which provides child care and after school programs for children in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. This particular initiative ensures that students leaving Paulo Freire to attend kindergarten in the fall leave with enough supplies to last them through the school year.

HSAwareness team members had the option of sponsoring a student and purchasing their own school supplies or making monetary donations to the cause and allowing volunteers to pick out the items for them.

All-in-all, a team of volunteers led by HSA senior vice president, Josephine Thomas-Hoytt, was able to collect enough supplies to fill 24 backpacks with crayons, markers, pencils, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, folders, notebooks, tissues, and paper towels.

HSAwareness has previously worked with Chicago Commons on multiple facility renovation projects, including freshening the playground at Paulo Freire Family Center last summer (watch a video of the project). Bob Smietana, HSA Commercial’s CEO, is a long-time governing board member at Chicago Commons.

The HSAwareness team would like to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to our school supply drive, and we look forward to working with all of our friends and colleagues to continue to make a difference in the lives of others through future endeavors.