Citizens Bank announced its annual Gear for Grades initiative on July 29. With this initiative, it will donated $50,000 to Cradles to Crayons, a West Conshohocken-based nonprofit organization, to help distribute 24,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to local children in need.

The filled backpacks will be dispersed through Cradles to Crayons’ network of community partners and given to children for the start of the school year. Citizens Bank volunteers sorted through donated new school supplies such as pencils, pens, crayons, glue sticks, rulers, and notebooks, and filled the backpacks to prepare for distribution.

Citizens Bank will also participate at the Backpack-A-Thon on August 6 at Lincoln Financial Field, where volunteers can stuff backpacks with school supplies that will be handed out as part of the Gear for Grades program.