Crye-Leike Realtors collects backpacks full of school supplies for Youth Villages | WLife

For the last 25 years, staff and real estate agents from Crye-Leike Realtors offices all over Middle Tennessee come together to gather backpacks filled with school supplies for teens in the Youth Villages organization.

Youth Villages is a private, non-profit organization that provides help to children and young people who struggle with emotional, mental, and behavioral problems. Their goal is to provide solutions and support such as, counseling, foster care, adoption services, residential treatment, community-based programs, and crisis prevention services for these individuals to help guide them in their future success.

On July 24, the Crye-Leike Realtors office located in Brentwood had the opportunity to watch these teens collect 310 backpacks from their office. The kids like to have a competition of how many backpacks they can carry to the car to load it up, and they have so much fun with it. One kid was able to carry 20 backpacks at once from the office to the car, which was very impressive.

Jason Murphy, the Crye-Leike principal broker and administrative manager for Middle Tennessee, describes that “It’s very rewarding to see how excited the teens look when they come to pick up their backpacks.” 

Murphy explains their planning and coordination with Youth Villages for this process, “Youth Villages will reach out to Crye-Leike and tell them where their greatest need is, which is typically high school students, and they will send us over a specific list of supplies consisting of: markers, graph papers, calculators, etc.” The people working for the Crye-Leike Offices in Middle Tennessee will each order and collect supplies, which will be delivered to students in need in all the Youth Villages coordinator offices within Middle Tennessee. 

Julie Abbot, a Youth Villages staff member on the development team explains that, “There are currently 1600 backpack requests for teens all throughout Middle Tennessee.” They help kids that live between Brentwood, Cookeville, and Clarksville all the way down to the state line. “Any donations make such a difference for these kids’ lives, from a donation of a box of crayons to people who coordinate these drives.” 

Crye-Leike’s partnership with Youth Villages of Middle Tennessee to support the Backpack Heroes program is in memory of Chris Crye, the late son of Crye-Leike Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Harold Crye. Like the Crye family, the company highly values supporting children and families and looks forward to the drive every year.

“Youth Villages is an outstanding organization, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with them once again,” said Crye. “Thanks to the generosity of our agents and associates, we’re able to make a real difference in these children’s lives.”