On Saturday, Aug. 29, hundreds of children and their families spent the day at Ellis Field Park in East Syracuse to celebrate the seventh annual Tillie’s Touch Youth Day Picnic, where about 500 backpacks were filled with school supplies to give free to children for the upcoming school year.

“Unfortunately, there really is a need like this in the community,” said Dale Johnson, founder of Tillie’s Touch. “It’s just incredible to see the amount of support from the community we get.”

In addition to the backpack giveaway, free haircuts for children were provided by stylists at Shear Concept in East Syracuse, a free lunch was provided for children and their families, the ESM Teachers Union was on hand to pass out oral hygiene products and donated clothes and books were available for children and parents to look through and take free of charge.

Johnson said he worked with many local businesses and residents to collect school supplies and backpack donations to be able to hand out to all students in attendance, free of charge. School supplies lists from the ESM school district were used to determine what supplies should go into each backpacks, which were handed out according to grade level.

“We came because it seemed like a fun thing to do today,” said Tim Wilson, a resident of Minoa. “It definitely helps out families in the area.”

Tillie’s Touch is a local nonprofit organization that was started to supply all children who wanted to play sports with proper equipment. Johnson said he quickly realized the need was just not in the sports realm and the organization now also collects clothing and supplies for children in the area who can use them.

In the seven years Tillie’s Touch has hosted this youth day picnic, Johnson said the organization has given out more than 3,000 backpacks to local children. To learn more about Tillie’s Touch, go to tilliestouch.wix.com/tilliestouch.

Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].