WARRENTON Volunteers for the Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program will go backpacking Wednesday.

But instead of hiking a local trail, they will fill 835 backpacks for Clatsop County students in kindergarten through third grade.

Open to anyone who wants to help, the backpacking session begins at 10 a.m. in the Warrenton Elementary School cafeteria.

Costco Wholesale donates 475 backpacks, and the Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program purchases an additional 360 backpacks. They are filled with donated school supplies such as pencils, crayons, glue, glue sticks, erasers, and folders.

It would be nice to provide things like scissors, markers, and rulers for the students, but those items are a little more spendy, said Karna Cupples, executive director of the Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program.

As it is, to purchase the additional backpacks and supplies that we currently provide, the cost is over $3,500, Cupples said.

The Lunch Buddy Mentoring Program recruits adult mentors to come into the grade and middle schools during the school year to provide a positive, caring relationship with an adult. Recruitment occurs throughout the school year.

Our numbers right now, stand at about 35 mentors. We need at least 75 mentors to even come close the amount of kids we need to serve, Cupples said.

It is an easy way to contribute to the community without making a huge time and financial commitment, she added.

A mentor visits the school once a week during the lunch hour to meet with his or her designated child. The students are either self-referred or chosen by school personnel as someone who would benefit from a mentoring relationship.

The mentors go through a screening process that includes an interview, training session and a criminal history check that is repeated every two years.

For questions regarding either the backpacking event or how to become a mentor, contact Cupples at 503-739-6042 or by e-mail at lunchbuddies@msn.com

A Grilled Cheese and Tow-Mater soup dinner fundraiser for the mentoring program is planned from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Seaside Civic and Convention Center.

The fundraiser is in conjunction with the Wheels and Waves event in Seaside.

The movie, Cars, will be playing in the adjoining room, and a life-sized replica of the tow truck, Tow Mater, will be there.  A photographer will be available to take pictures.

 We wanted to do something a little different than the usual pancake feed, Cupples said.