Jade Marlin Foundation to Give Away Free Backpacks in Pasadena on August 15

The Jade Marlin Foundation will hand out free backpacks and school supplies at a Pasadena giveaway on Saturday, Aug. 15, one of several back-to-school events across the region as families prepare for the new school year.

The Pasadena-based nonprofit will run the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 900 N. Lake Ave., the North Lake Avenue site where it has held past giveaways. Children must be present to receive a backpack, according to the foundation’s event listing and regional back-to-school guides.

The giveaway will also include free face painting for children, according to a back-to-school guide published by LA Magazine and the foundation’s own listing on Eventbrite, where families are asked to register in advance.

A promotional flyer distributed by the foundation lists the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area, Wescom Financial, the County of Los Angeles and the Pasadena Community Job Center as sponsors, with face painting provided by Doodling Faces. Radio station 93.5 KDAY is a special guest.

The foundation was founded by fashion designer Jade Marlin, whose core work is fashion education — a mentorship program for youth and adults, a scholarship program for college students, and a fashion academy.

Marlin, the foundation’s founder and chief executive, said the backpack giveaway is part of a wider effort to raise the organization’s profile this year.

“I wanted to say this year, let’s get more out there, let’s create more in the community and bring more community awareness and then help the community and give back,” he said in an interview.

The August event follows other recent foundation giveaways in Pasadena. In May, the foundation held its first free food-and-clothes giveaway at the same North Lake Avenue location. Marlin tied that event to families still struggling after the Eaton Fire, the January 2025 wildfire that devastated much of Altadena and parts of Pasadena.

“I know Pasadena been through a lot with the fires, and it’s still people that’s struggling,” he said ahead of the May giveaway. “I just wanted to … give back some food and clothes.”

The foundation has held school-supply giveaways at the same North Lake Avenue CVS lot before, including one in July 2024 in partnership with 93.5 KDAY.

Marlin says he began the organization in 2015 as “Jade Loves Kids”; it was incorporated in California as a nonprofit public benefit corporation in March 2024.

Registration and additional details are posted through the foundation’s Eventbrite listing and at jademarlinfoundation.org.