Section: Broward Edition: Broward Page: 1B By JOHNNY DIAZ, Herald Staff Writer

Illustration: color photo: Elandra Julme takes a backpack as Oakland Park Police Officer Chris Wright-Steele watches

Caption: BOB EIGHMIE / Herald Staff SCHOOL GOODIES: Elandra Julme, 7, of the Plymouth Colony shelter reaches for a backpack while Oakland Park Police Officer Chris Wright-Steele looks on.

You couldn't erase the Colgate smile Pamela Mohammed wore Friday morning as she sashayed down the street with her new backpack.

It's not every day the pint-size 8-year-old gets a batch of school supplies for free.

The black backpack, free. Notebooks, free.

Pens, pencils and paper. Free, free, free.

Mohammed was one of the dozen children from the Salvation Army-Plymouth Colony shelter in Hollywood to receive free backpacks and supplies from the Kids 4 Kids Club.

It's a nonprofit program that has 185 Jack Gordon Elementary students in second through fifth grades who work to improve the lives of kids less fortunate than them.

The club's philosophy: Poor kids should start school with new, top-quality backpacks loaded with school supplies so they get off to the same start as kids with more advantages.

Kids 4 Kids raised about $50,000 for the project from businesses such as Target, Pepsi and The Herald to buy the backpacks and supplies.

This week, the kids delivered new, brightly colored backpacks filled with school supplies to young recipients that included 2,000 homeless children, 500 migrant children and 500 abused kids in protective custody in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The Kids 4 Kids Club members spent five hours a day stuffing the packs with folders, paper, pens, rulers, glue, crayons and pencils for this week's deliveries.

``We want to make sure that when school starts, they have everything they need,'' said Beth Davis, founder of the Kids 4 Kids Club and a teacher at Jack Gordon Elementary in south Dade County.

The program has provided thousands of backpacks to needy kids since 1996 in Miami-Dade. Davis said she started the Kids 4 Kids Club to give homeless children backpacks.

Since then, it has grown big enough to place second last year among 2,000 entrants in a national awards competition called Education's Unsung Heroes.

The club's $12,000 prize went to start new clubs in other schools and to buy more backpacks for the homeless.

Friday was the first time the program was extended into Broward County.

Davis and company stopped at 10 shelters throughout Broward to deliver the goods Friday. They plan to deliver more Saturday in West Palm Beach.

At the Plymouth Colony center, Marilyn Mohammed beamed with joy as she saw all the kids collect their backpacks, including daughter Pamela, who will be a fourth- grader at Dania Elementary this year.

``She's ready for school now,'' Mohammed said as Pamela tried on her backpack and a blue cap.

e-mail: jodiaz@herald.com

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