It’s always great to see people coordinating to help ensure that children have everything they need for school when fall rolls around. Unfortunately, there are thousands of children each year who go to back to school with the same old worn supplies and whatever few new ones their parents could afford – but communities have been coming together more and more over the years to ensure that no child falls behind due to their home life circumstances by donating backpacks filled with school supplies.
A father from South Jersey took it upon himself to throw an event this week that will ensure that plenty of children go back to school with the confidence that they have all the needed supplies. Ricardo Rivera is a medical cannabis activist – and his nine year old daughter is a medical cannabis patient and has been since about a year after medical marijuana became an option in New Jersey.
“They told us she wouldn’t make it past nine. Well, she’s nine now,” he said of a mission for which he’s created the hashtag #TuffysFight to spread the word. “We ended up getting her [medical-marijuana card] after a year and half into the Jersey program. The first day on oil, she went seizure-free and has been pretty good ever since. She’s decreased by 90 percent.”
After all that success, Rivera said they wanted to give-back and help local children in need. They are throwing an event at a Philly arts venue called Connie’s Ric Rac; there will be an entrance fee that can be covered either by bringing school supplies such as colored pencils, crayons, notebooks and folders or backpacks (which are encouraged to be filled!) or a $10 donation that will go towards additional school supplies.
“We are really looking forward to continuing to show the people of Philadelphia that our cannabis community is dedicated to making our city a better place to live for everyone,” Rivera said.
It’s great to see the cannabis community coming out to help others in need; especially when it comes to helping children and schools (which the industry has found multiple ways to do already). It really puts to rest the “what about the children” argument – children benefit from things like this and from the money that state taxes can put towards improvements as they have done in Colorado. This event is just one more great example of the cannabis community finding ways to give back to others.
