Page 114 - 2018 B2SI Recap Binder
P. 114

societal pillars.
Kurtzman quickly learned that the education and support he received as a child was not available in urban Chicago.
“I recognized how fortunate I was in that arena, growing up in a privileged suburb ... the contrast of living in the city was striking,” Kurtzman explained.
According to Kurtzman, 1.2 million children in Illinois live in low-income households.
Many of these children and their families can’t afford the most basic school supplies like notebooks, pens, or pencils.
“Why I do what I do [now] is exactly that reason. Because I didn’t have that adversity in most aspects of my life,” said Kurtzman.
Kurtzman created a program to provide school supplies to underprivileged children for the Community Currency Exchange Association of Illinois in 2002.
The program did so well that the Community Currency Exchange Association made the program an individual nonprofit in 2010. Kurtzman would become the executive director, and later the CEO. In 2015 the program changed its name to Back 2 School Illinois.
(Courtesy of Back 2 School Illinois)
Back 2 School Illinois accepts donations from individuals, businesses, and fundraisers to finance free school supply kits for underprivileged students.
The non-profit organization’s Build-A-Kit program also ships supplies in bulk to a company or an


































































































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