East Central Iowa Association of REALTORS®: Building Brighter Futures Through Backpacks

Four years ago, members of the East Central Iowa Association of REALTORS® Community Involvement Committee set out to create a summer volunteer activity, and they had backpacks on their mind. After connecting with Dubuque and Western Dubuque School Districts, they learned of the St. Mark Youth Enrichment Apples for Students program. The rest, as they say, is history. 

“It was the perfect fit,” Melissa Groth, CEO of ECIAR, recalls. “That year, we launched the ‘We Got Your Back’ backpack drive competition between real estate offices and also had a group of about 15 volunteers help pack supplies.” 

Four years later the effort has morphed into an all-encompassing project, collecting more than 1,600 backpacks in 2025.

“We started volunteering that first year and realized they needed more bags, so we decided to keep helping and added a backpack drive to our efforts,” said Ashley Erschen, ECIAR Community Involvement Committee chair. “It’s grown each year.”

In fact, Erschen said the drive has doubled in the last year through office to office and agent to agent conversations, as well as, through meetings, personal social media posts, and plenty of word-of-mouth.

“Brokerages and REALTORS® are more creative on how they are collecting the backpacks, creating competitions.” she said. “Some would pick up a few, but now, people are like ‘let's pool our money and see how many we can get,’ so they are buying in bulk.” 

Following the conclusion of the drive, Erschen said the board awards a trophy to the brokerage who collected the most backpacks. It’s become a prized possession among participants. 

East Central Iowa REALTORS® don’t just stop at backpacks. Each year, they ask St. Mark’s what other needs exist. One year, when there was a shortage of binders, agents pooled funds across multiple offices to provide an extra donation. 

Another time, after dropping donations last year, Erschen realized there was a need to sort the donations. The group then came back for three days to help ready the supplies for students to pick up. The best part of the effort, Erschen said, is seeing the students who benefit from the drive. 

“We see the kids come down and hang out,” she said. “It's really cool to be there and see kids who benefit directly.”

In the end, Erschen noted that the best part of the effort is just knowing that ECIAR members are able to make an impact in their community. 

“The reason I love to be the lead of the Community Involvement Committee, it's rewarding to see how much impact a few people can make in the community,” she said. “We serve meals, host food drives, and more. It's rewarding to see the people benefit from those directly.” 

But there’s another bonus: it’s a way for REALTORS® to connect with their community and with one another.

“We get to know other agents, you may not meet other agents with the technology in this world, but by volunteering, we get to meet others we wouldn't on a regular basis too,” she said.