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](http://www.careyindiana.com)
Indianapolis- Now in its eighth year, through a partnership with the Colts, the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) and Cargo Services, Inc., Books for Youth is a statewide program that provides backpacks filled with 25 age-appropriate books to foster children in Indiana. The program focuses on promoting literacy by providing a personal library to every Indiana foster child. Tuesday's event marked the third of several distributions the Colts, DCS and Cargo Services, Inc. will partner on this year.
Prior to the backpack distribution, attendees toured Colts in Motion, the team's traveling museum full of Colts history and memorabilia. Cheerleaders and the Lombardi Trophy were also on site for fans to take pictures. Following this, over 50 backpacks were given to the foster children in attendance making Kokomo the largest distribution so far this year. After receiving the backpacks, Colts Mascot Blue made a special appearance to sign autographs as well as play interactive games with the children.
To date, the Books for Youth team has collected more than 800,000 books for this program and has distributed more than 7,500 backpacks to foster children in Indiana.
On Tuesday, July 15, representatives from the Indianapolis Colts and Cargo Services, Inc. teamed up for the Books for Youth Backpack Distribution hosted by HAYNES International in Kokomo, Indiana.
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