Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter is still looking for participants to sponsor backpacks for Ferndale's Head Start students.

Coulter, who is spearheading a $1,250 grant awarded to the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency by Ferndale Community Foundation (FCF), has three organizations signed up to help him facilitate the program to individual sponsers.

With grant funding from the FCF, 68 backpacks were purchased for the students in Ferndale's four head start classrooms. Each backpack has a list of items to fill it with along with the name of a Head Start student. Coulter is calling on individuals to sponsor a student, get a backpack, and purchase the items on the list.

Items include (at a $30 value):

• Children’s toothpaste
• Children’s toothbrush
• Reading book (for ages 3-4)
• Coloring book
• Crayons (large size)
• Three-pack of underwear
• Two-piece sweat suit or a sweatshirt  and sweatpants

The three local organizations that have signed on to help Coulter coordinate the program include Credit Union One, Drayton Avenue Presbyterian Church and the First Baptist Church of Ferndale.

"We want to send our Ferndale head start students back to school the right way with a full backpack," Coulter said.

The Head Start program, housed at Grant Early Childhood Center, is a national educational program to help low-income families with young children get educational services.

If interested in sponsoring a head start student, contact Ferndale Mayor Dave Coulter at 248-543-8984.

Correction: There are three organizations working with Mayor Dave Coulter on the Head Start Back Pack project.