Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens hosted their annual free Back to School Festival on Saturday, September 9, spon­sored by HydroQuebec, Champlain Hud­son Power Express, TD Bank, Heroes Basketball, and the Rite Bite. Nearly 1,000 backpacks and school supplies were given away to kids present at the event. Mr. and Mrs. Met were in attendance to give the backpacks to the kids.

Backpacks and supplies were gener­ously donated by Queens Borough Presi­dent Donovan Richards Jr., Apartment 3R, Staples store 841, The Amazin’ Mets Foun­dation, New York Cares, Steve Madden, ConnectOne Bank, Target, and the Queens Distance Runners. At the event, Chip City gave out 1,000 cookies, Sky Farm LIC gave away 100 pounds of fresh produce, over 500 books for all ages were given and additional drinks and snacks were pro­vided.

The festival included a bounce house, inflatable slide, dunk tank, games, tie dye station, face painting, balloon animals, and more. Vendors present were BioBus con­ducting science experiments, Astoria Film Festival doing film crafts with kids, Metro­Plus Health, FDNY, and New York Life.

Additionally, on 30th Road, there were learn-to-ride and bicycle safety lessons with Bike Rent NYC.

Variety was also joined by dozens of volunteers from Mega Contracting Group, Disney VoluntEars, New York Life, Steve Madden, the Girl Scouts, Queens Distance Runners, Variety’s Young Professions as well as Variety Alums.