Backpack Buddies is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in the spring of 2010 by then nine-year-old Lucia Hoerr. Backpack Buddies's mission is to prepare underprivileged children for the start of school, as well as relieve their parents and teachers of a heavy financial burden, by providing backpacks filled with school supplies to hundreds of Virginia students at the start of each school year. Since our founding, Backpack Buddies has donated more than 3,500 packed backpacks to elementary, middle, and high school students in need.