This week, volunteers with the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) Magic City Chapter are helping provide hundreds of students with school supplies as a new school year begins. They’ve given out more than 500 backpacks at Birmingham-area elementary schools.

APSO Magic City partnered with the Birmingham Board of Education, which identified five elementary schools with students in need of school supplies. The schools are Barrett, Glen Iris, South Hampton, Tuggle and West End Academy.

Volunteers started handing out the backpacks August 14. To fill them with supplies, the APSO chapter hosted a school supply drive at Alabama Power’s Corporate Headquarters throughout the summer. Volunteers and entire departments donated folders, pencils, notebook paper and hand sanitizer to fill the backpacks. APSO members then stuffed backpacks with the supplies.

The project came together earlier this year, when APSO Magic City partnered with the Rotaract Club of Birmingham in a joint school supply drive. “Education is one of our focus areas for 2013, and we wanted to make a school supply drive our signature project this year,” said Amy Stephens, APSO Magic City president who works in Alabama Power’s Fuel Services department.

More than 1,200 employees and their families from the Birmingham area make up APSO Magic City’s membership. Statewide, more than 5,000 employees and family members are part of APSO. To learn more, visit http://www.alpowercharitablegiving.org/ and click on “Volunteerism.”