This year marked the 18th year that the $993 million Black Hills Federal Credit Union in Rapid City, S.D., has collected school supplies for children. For this school year, the credit union said it received more than 77,000 supplies for its School Supply Drive thanks to donations from community partners, corporate sponsors, credit union staff and members. Thousands of students in more than 60 schools throughout western and central South Dakota will start their school year with the supplies they need, according to Black Hills.

During its first annual Starting School Cool FREE Backpack Giveaway held in August, the $1.6 billion Stanford Federal Credit Union in Palo, Alto, Calif., said it gave away 500 new backpacks filled with school supplies for local area kids in kindergarten through fourth grade.

In addition, backpacks were hand delivered by credit union employees to a local school in East Palo Alto. The backpacks were filled with back-to-school essentials, such as pencils, crayons, scissors, notebooks and erasers.