Once again, River of Life Church has been part of making a difference in the lives of almost 1,000 students in Garland County by partnering with Project Backpack, a 501c3 non-profit started by Pastors Ben and Pam Wiles to provide school supplies for needy families.

On Saturday, August 7th, the doors of River of Life Church opened at 9 am and welcomed single-parent families as well as other families needing assistance to provide them with a meal, medical screenings, vision screenings, job opportunities, a high-energy puppet show and gospel presentation, and – of course – backpacks stuffed with school supplies! As of this writing, we have given away 825 full backpacks with more to be handed out in the next two weeks. Our goal is to touch 1,000 lives in this way.

River of Life and Project Backpack wishes to thank Hot Springs Women’s Chamber of Commerce, CMA Spring Riders Motorcycle Club, Hot Springs High School T-steppers, LifeNet Ambulance Service, Arkansas State Police, Hot Springs Fire Department, Refuge Therapeutic Massage, Dr. Neil Clem (Optopia Eye Clinic), the Gideons, St. Joseph Hospital, and  Devin Dickinson with Accent Marketing for presenting job opportunities for parents. Also, special thanks to all the donors who gave (we’ll be doing a press release soon with a formal list) and to the members and friends of River of Life Church who worked together to make this event the smoothest one yet! A special thanks to Lindsay Welch, Chris Lingle, and Resonate students (our youth group) for literally “jumping for joy” for 5 hours straight!

Here is a short video remix of the day. We look forward to getting started on preparations for next year’s event.