Backpack giveaway memorializes beloved Brooklyn Hospital staffer

August 23, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A HOSPITAL TRADITION THAT GIVES BACKPACKS AND SCHOOL SUPPLIES to children in local shelters will continue this coming week. The Brooklyn Hospital Center on Wednesday, Aug. 28, will host Ed Becote Back-to-School Drive, which gives backpacks stuffed with school supplies to children staying in shelters near the hospital. The hospital’s Patient Transport Team began the initiative in 2018, and it was later named to memorialize their colleague, Ed Becote, who had been one of the drive’s biggest advocates, and who died in 2020. This year, Brooklyn Hospital Center is on track to raise more than its targeted $6,000 for the project, making possible 200 extra stuffed backpacks available for children in the community. The event, running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Children’s Health Center (121 DeKalb Avenue), is open to the public. Backpacks will be distributed to families on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last.

Edward Becote was a patient transporter at Brooklyn Hospital Center, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Becote, who was popular among his colleagues, was referred to as the “mayor” of TBHC.

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