by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias elementary school students had a little something extra to be excited about at the beginning of their new year. During their first week of school, every member of the student body was presented with a brand-new backpack full of school supplies and complete with their name on a luggage tag.

Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School teacher Lizzy Douglas said that the 350 backpacks were a gift from Ruth’s Reusable Resources, an organization she reached out to when she first heard of them earlier this year.