Free Backpacks Draw Thousands of Needy Pupils : Supplies: Parents say the Rescue Mission’s gift is crucial to their children’s outlook.

Saturday’s trip was an all-day ordeal for Gloria Del Bosque and her family but, in the words of her son, Jeremy, “it was worth it.”

The Del Bosques were among several thousand needy children and parents who lined the 1900 block of West Walnut Avenue most of Saturday morning in hopes of getting a free backpack full of school supplies, compliments of the Orange County Rescue Mission.

Four of Del Bosque’s six children made the nearly two-hour trek to the mission on foot and by bus from their west Anaheim apartment to join the line. But these are things a mother must do to make ends meet in Orange County, Del Bosque said.

“Things are so expensive here, it is very hard for us to survive,” said Del Bosque, a Saginaw, Mich., native who has been in California for three years. “We pay $700 in rent for our two-bedroom apartment, plus gas and utilities. I only get about $850 a month, which doesn’t go far out here.”

The Del Bosques’ plight is no surprise to John F. Lands, president of the Orange County Rescue Mission. Located in the heart of one of the county’s poorest communities, a west Santa Ana barrio, the 29-year-old 11,000-square-foot mission houses 100 homeless men a night and serves 320 meals to the needy every day.

But the back-to-school backpack program, now in its third year, draws needy families by the thousands. Lands knew he had an instant success on his hands the first year when, stocked with only 200 backpacks, 600 people showed up.

“We were shocked,” he said Saturday during a break from the crowd clamoring around his office in the mission cafeteria. “We knew there was a need, but we didn’t really know what to expect.”

This year, Lands and his 10-person staff started early by notifying schools and posting signs in grocery stores and other gathering places around the area weeks ago announcing the offering open for any needy family.

“There are kids here who probably didn’t get anything new when they started school this year,” Lands said. “We hope this small benefit will help them develop a positive outlook on education.”

With about $6,000 to spend this year, mission volunteers bought 1,200 backpacks filled with notebooks, pencils, pens, rulers and other supplies. For anyone who was hungry, a free spaghetti lunch was also served at noon.

“It’s gotten to be quite a thing,” said Lands, who credits Peter Ochs, a mission board member, with the idea. “Just like our Christmas and Thanksgiving celebrations, people find out we are going to do this so they come in force.”

And they come early. The line began to form at 6 a.m. Women and men, pushing strollers and carrying the youngest children in their arms, crowded the sidewalks. Many of the better prepared came with umbrellas serving as parasols to provide shade from the hot September sun.

Rosa Pichardo arrived in time to get a backpack for her daughter, Bernice Licet, a second-grader at James A. Garfield Elementary. Licet, a mother of seven who was pushing a stroller, carrying a purse full of baby supplies and holding her daughter’s hand, could have used a backpack, or mochila as she called it.

“It is more than important, it is necessary for the children to have these things,” Pichardo said in Spanish. She is caring for her family while her husband remains in Mexico.

Armando Rodriguez, 16, a freshman at Santa Ana Valley High School, agreed. He left with a red canvas backpack full of supplies.

“I came here so I wouldn’t have to use all my money for school supplies,” Rodriguez said.