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Operation Backpack continues family tradition of helping

Register-Herald - 9/26/2021

Sep. 26—Whether she's collecting school supplies for Operation Backpack or raising awareness and funds for the Raleigh County Veterans Museum, Cindy Parker is always on the go.

And she quite frequently tends to find herself in front of crowds or cameras — two things she doesn't particularly enjoy.

"I'm an introvert really," she said with a laugh, "but I have to act like I'm not so I can get the job done."

Fortunately, her discomfort is lessened by the knowledge that she's working toward a greater good.

"God wants you to help other people," Parker said. "That's what he put you on this Earth for is to love each other and to help each other.

"So that's what I feel I need to do."

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At 60 years old, Parker has never traveled far from the home in which she was raised.

"I live on the same street, just a house or two down from where I grew up," the Beckley native said.

And she's never strayed from the values she learned as a child either.

"It's always been instilled in me to help other people," she said, drawing upon early memories of her grandparents and her father.

"My dad volunteered with Mac's Toy Fund and my grandparents volunteered at the VA Hospital," she said. "They were always a big inspiration to me."

Such an inspiration, in fact, that she followed in their footsteps, spending several of her teenage summers as a volunteer at the same hospital.

"I worked in escort service, where you went and picked up something or took a patient to X-ray or therapy or somewhere," she said.

Parker remained a volunteer until she took a job at a local fast food restaurant, where she "met" her future spouse, Gary, who had lived in her neighborhood as a child and even served as her paperboy.

After she married Gary, a Navy veteran four years her senior, she also began volunteering with Mac's Toy Fund and started working with groups at Mabscott United Methodist Church.

That's where, in 1995, Operation Backpack began.

"It started with a small group," Parker said of the backpack and school supply collection she initiated with the church youth group she led.

The initial idea was to provide supplies for children staying in a local homeless shelter.

Backpacks were second-hand the first year. A small church fundraiser allowed the purchase of new items the following year and a $50 donation from the Methodist Women allowed the group to purchase items the third year.

When she contacted the homeless shelter for delivery that third year, however, she learned they had no students.

"But we had 10 backpacks so we split them between Mabscott and Institute (elementary schools)," she recalled. "And that's how we got into schools."

Operation Backpack provides for a lot more than 10 students these days as Parker said it's not uncommon for her to distribute more than 1,000 backpacks to elementary, middle and high schools in Raleigh, Summers and Wyoming counties.

"I just feel like whatever the need is that God puts on us, that's what we will do," she said.

The group includes more than just youth group members these days, as Parker organizes fundraisers and places supply dropboxes throughout the community each summer.

And Parker is always keeping an eye out for bargains and supplies, year-round, shopping as far away as Durham, N.C., where she, aided by store employees, stuffed her car with 100 pencil boxes and backpacks.

"We all worked together and the manager bundled them with twine so we could get them flat enough to fit in the car," she said.

Parker has no idea how many backpacks have been distributed through the years but said a call has never gone unanswered.

"We just want to try to give them the supplies they need to have a successful year," she said. "And whatever the need is, God provides."

----Parker said her volunteering life has come full circle in recent years.

When she's not busy with backpacks and school supplies, she can often be found at the Raleigh County Veterans Museum.

It was her son Patrick, who volunteered with her at the Mac's Toy Fund distribution party when he was a child, who lured her into the museum.

"He was in ROTC in ninth grade at Woodrow when he began volunteering," Parker said of her now 31-year-old son, who started the living history program at the museum.

Parker and her husband started accompanying Patrick on his Saturday visits and eventually became board members.

In 2016, when the museum's longtime president Jim Toler passed away, Parker stepped up further.

"I'm mostly in charge of fundraising," she said. "And I'm also the spokesperson."

It's a busy time to be in charge of either of those tasks, as the museum looks to raise money to move into a larger location.

Parker, however, said she's just a small piece of the puzzle.

"We have to work together as a team," she said, "because our goal is to honor, preserve and remember our veterans and their sacrifices."

Both Operation Backpack and the Veterans Museum keep her plenty busy.

Two weeks after the school year began, Parker sat in a Walmart parking lot waiting for a downpour to end so she could buy three more packs of colored pencils.

"We thought we were done, but we have a few more backpacks," she said with a laugh.

She said it can be stressful, at times, but it's a "good stress."

"You know what you're doing and why you're doing it," she said. "That's how God works through us."

She said volunteering is a passion — a calling — and she encourages others to find theirs.

"There's so many things that people can do, whether it's holding a patient's hand at hospice, or giving encouragement at the homeless shelter or helping care for pets at the Humane Society," she said. "If people volunteered more, I think our world would be a lot different.

"Life's short," she continued. "I just think if you give of yourself to others who need a hand up, you enjoy life a little bit better."

— Email: mjames@register-herald.com

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