Watching those clouds roll in, and the backpacks, too

Charles Young was watching the skies this afternoon, looking for signs of lightning. He's sitting atop a bucket truck, 40-feet in the air.

But so far, so good in his quest to collect 1,000 backpacks for children who live in Palmetto's Oakridge Apartments, or who attend Pace Center for Girls or Oneco Elementary School.

Charles' church, Bayside Community, is collecting the backpacks, filled with school supplies, to assist students from some hard-luck neighborhoods.

Midway through his second day in the cherry picker, Charles reported receiving 356 backpacks, putting him one-third of the way to his goal.

With today's story in the Bradenton Herald, traffic to his cherry picker, parked near Chick-Fil-A, 5206 73rd Lane East, has been much heavier, he said.

Donors get a little payback too: a coupon for a spicey chicken sandwich inside the restaurant.

Let's get Charles out of the skies so he doesn't have to stay up in the cherry picker until Friday night. More backpacks, please, for a worthy cause.

Charles Young handed a chicken sandwich coupon to a backpack donor on Monday.

Jim