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Hundreds of people wait in line at Lincoln Park, where the giveaway got started half an hour ahead of schedule to accommodate the crowds.

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Photos: Steve Gold

Organizers of the back-to-school book bag and school supply drive say they served “over 5,000″ Jersey City students last weekend, with crowds flocking to the giveaways at three Jersey City sites. And as a thank you to the many people who volunteered with and sponsored the effort, the United Way of Hudson County is hosting a Thank You BBQ on Sunday, September 12.

“What is most amazing about this is how it all came together so quickly. When a month ago, five community leaders came to the [United Way] with an idea of getting 3,000 backpacks into the hands of Jersey City school children by September 1, quite frankly I wondered if we could pull it off,” United Way of Hudson County president Dan Altilio says. “Not only did we pull it off, we increased the amount of backpacks by more than 50 percent.”

Altilio says the event would not have been a success without the numerous corporate and individual sponsors, the community and political leaders that lent their hands to the effort, and the nearly 150 volunteers who donated what he estimates at more than 1,000 hours of their time to time to stuff and distribute book bags, log in pre-registrations and distribute fliers. Citations will be given out to all of the sponsors and volunteers at the September 12 celebration.

But even with the drive’s success, Altilio points out there is much more work to be done.

“There are approximately 20,000 grammar school children in Jersey City, so we were able to help 25 percent of them,” he says. “Maybe next year we can double that number and expand the number of sites. Who knows, in two or three years we might be able to put a backpack with school supplies in the hands of every K-8 student in Jersey City.”

The Thank-You BBQ is scheduled for Sunday, September 12 from 2 to 5 pm, at the Lincoln Park Little League Field.