MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center will continue its annual backpack and school supply donation, giving 360 backpacks to local students at Colgate Elementary. Students in pre-K through fifth grade at Colgate Elementary, a southeast Baltimore County public school serving Dundalk’s Colgate and Eastwood communities, will receive their new backpacks filled with school supplies at “Back to School Night” on Thursday, August 21, starting at 4 p.m.

Since 2006, MedStar Franklin Square annually selects a local school and works with the teachers and administrators to determine the supplies needed for each grade. The hospital provides the backpacks and hospital nurses and staff volunteer to purchase the supplies need to fill the backpacks.

“MedStar Franklin Square is honored to continue this tradition for the eighth year,” said Larry Strassner, PhD, RN, FACHE, senior vice president for operations and chief nursing officer at MedStar Franklin Square. “As a Magnet® designated hospital and a committed partner of the community, it is our goal and privilege to help local students and their families start the school year off right.”

In previous years, MedStar Franklin Square has distributed backpacks to students at Mars Estates, St. Stephens Creative Learning Center, Battle Grove, Sandy Plains, Shady Spring, Middlesex, Sandalwood, Hawthorne elementary schools. This year’s donation to Colgate Elementary will bring the total number of donated backpacks to nearly 3,860.

About MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center

MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center is a not-for-profit 378-bed community teaching hospital located in the White Marsh section of eastern Baltimore County, Maryland. MedStar Franklin Square provides many medical and healthcare services, including a broad range of healthcare specialties, advanced technologies and treatments not traditionally found at community hospitals. The hospital is ranked third in admissions among all Maryland hospitals and is first in Emergency Department visits with more than 108,000 visits annually. MedStar Franklin Square is accredited by the Joint Commission and certified as a Primary Stroke Center and has earned some of the nation’s most prestigious quality awards including Magnet Designation for excellence in nursing, the Excellence Award for Quality Improvement from the Delmarva Foundation and inclusion in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospital specialty ranking for four consecutive years. With more than 3,300 employees, MedStar Franklin Square is one of the largest employers in Baltimore County.