FALL RIVER — Young entrepreneur Isabella Moniz is on a mission to give back.

The 16-year-old sophomore at Bishop Connolly High School started the nonprofit Backpacks to Learn & Grow when she was 14. Backpacks to Learn & Grow provides backpacks to students in need in Fall River and other local communities. In total, the program has collected school supplies and backpacks to give to about 450 families living in shelters and transitional housing in the area for the past two years.

“You're giving a child what they need to start off with, that maybe sometimes in the beginning of the year, they don't necessarily have. ... So by already supplying that for them, it gives them the advantage of other students to become successful in school,” she said.

During the first year, they were able to give away about 250 bookbags, and about 200 the next year. Although she hopes to get a great number of supplies and donations, Moniz says she isn't focusing on a number goal — just the goal of helping out a child.

“I'm just trying to help as many as I can, no matter how many backpacks I have, and just giving back that way. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you have 95 or 100, the child's still going to be grateful for the backpack they got.”

The idea for Backpacks to Learn & Grow was initiated from Moniz's experience in an after-school club called Leaders In Training, a program involved with community outreach and services. After the club donated and worked with the Gifts to Give in New Bedford, Moniz had taken notice of the lack of school supplies.

“I'm a second-grade catechism teacher. So my immediate thought was, 'My kids, some of them do come from environments like that, where do they get their school supplies from?'”

Going around Fall River through her community work and seeing people in need called her to take action. Her family, the LIT club and her faith molded her to be the person who started a backpack and school supply drive for children living in homeless shelters and transitional housing.

“I've always been in an environment where we constantly were giving back to those who are less fortunate than we were, so I think that's exactly where it came from ... my family and just my faith and the influences of other people in my life.”

As a catechism teacher, Moniz is passionate about helping kids. She gets a sense for what they need to succeed and wants to be able to provide that for them so they can be successful. She strongly feels as though giving back and helping others is her duty in life because of her faith.

“I've always grown up around the idea that as Catholics, we are here to serve, and to give back to our community just as God did and to love everyone.”

Continuing to give back, in a few weeks, Moniz will start the process for her third annual collection, as she seeks help from people who share the same belief of providing for those in need.

Starting by giving a speech and reaching out, Moniz receives help from her church and a couple of different companies. One year, Schools on Wheels donated around 142 backpacks. She also gets discounts from Staples for school supplies. Additionally, she collects donations from the bins located at her church every week. Then she hosts collection drives around July or August, before school starts, located at a cleaning school.

They accept new backpacks, school supplies and money donations. They don’t accept anything used, because Moniz believes the kids are more excited when they receive something new.

After all the donations are in, Moniz stuffs all the backpacks with the supplies and buys whatever is missing so that no backpack outweighs the other.

At first, Moniz wasn’t aware of the amount or the type of work that it took to run a nonprofit organization. The process went a lot deeper than she thought; from scheduling, networking, to monitoring finances and more. The work is preparing this teenager for adulthood.

“I never really expected it was going to be like this. I was just like, ‘Oh, I'm just gonna get all these backpacks and, it's going to be great.’ And no, there's a lot of work that actually goes into making it what it is, and it's actually really stressful.”

She says it’s all worth it when she ships the bags to Catholic Social Services to get it distributed. Once everything is accomplished, Moniz finally gets the chance to relax and reflect.

“When they're out of my hands at that point, that's when I can really just sit back and just like think about what I've done this year.”

Unfortunately for Moniz, she is not able to physically be there to see the ones she calls “my kids”, who she is affecting, because of confidentiality reasons. “I wish I could just see their faces when they got them,” says Moniz. Although she still gets to smile, when she is driving around the city and sees kids sport her bookbags, distinguished by her organization’s logo.

Even though she can’t be recognized by the kids, her honorable and selfless work is still acknowledged by others, including her school.

Earlier in the year, Moniz was recognized during a special ceremony at Bishop Connolly High School for her initiative to take action and help students. Moniz wiped away tears of joy while receiving the 2019 Youth Virtues, Valor, and Vision Award from the National Catholic Educational Association.

“I don’t necessarily do it for the award itself, I do it more so to give back to my community and to help those in need because I advocate for children. ... So, just knowing it was recognized by someone else who nominated my award is really great because it was humbling,” says Moniz. “It just motivates me to work even harder and try to build my organization more to make it bigger to help others.”

According to her school, Moniz’s “selfless service, determination, innovation and ideas that are changing the world” is what makes her stand out. She was chosen from more than 1.8 million Catholic school students across the country to be recognized for her heroic contribution.

“There's kids who are out there who are doing great things. I was one of the 10. ... They do absolutely great things like some of them do out of the US,” says Moniz.

“Young people in our Catholic schools are truly changing the world, one student at a time,” NCEA Chief Leadership and Program Officer, Barbara Edmondson.

Moniz said she's hopeful the younger generation will continue the spirit of giving. “I think that there's more of a bigger presence of youth giving back to the community, which I think is really great.”

One of the reasons why she believes the youth is becoming more involved and taking action is social media. ”People really see different aspects of life that maybe they've never seen, and it pushes them to either be a part of it and help, or try to fix. ... I think that's what really inspires kids to actually be an entrepreneur.”

For anyone who is looking to become a entrepreneur, Moniz hopes her story encourages them: “I think it just motivates people to realize that, like, if you have the right people behind you, and even if you don't, if you just push yourself to do something, you can obviously accomplish it.”

To keep fulfilling her duty, Moniz’s says her future plans involve growing and expanding her organization outside Fall River and maybe even the United States. “I'd like to be able to maybe someday do that and reach almost everywhere.”

To donate to Moniz's nonprofit and help provide the resources essential for kids' education, email backpack2grow@gmail.com. Moniz will send a flyer with a list of materials needed. She is still planning an upcoming drive.