Despite having over 600 backpacks and a mountain of crayons, markers, notebooks, and ring binders available to her, EJ (Elizabeth Jeanne) Schwartz, 11, still insisted her mother take her shopping to buy her supplies.

"The ones we collected were for the children who need help, not for me," the Scotch Plains sixth-grader insisted this past Friday, Aug. 24, as she presided over the delivery of all that bounty to its rightful destination.

The supplies were headed to schools in Newark and Plainfield as part of a mitzva project EJ undertook ahead of the b'nei mitzva ceremony she and her brother Andrew, 12, will share next May.

That seems like a long way off, but their mother, Joanne, had urged them to complete their projects by the end of the summer, before studying begins in earnest for their ceremony.

The children attend religious school at Congregation Beth Israel, the Conservative synagogue in Scotch Plains, and Terrill Middle School in Scotch Plains; Andrew is in seventh grade.

"I realized that it wouldn't work to ask people to donate school bags in the middle of the year; it needed to be done at the end of the year or over the summer," said Joanne.

"I can't believe that we've finally reached this weekend," she said last Friday. Her husband, Tod, home early from work that day to help with EJ's delivery, was smiling just as broadly.

To get EJ to complete her project on time, her parents promised she could do two days a week of gymnastics.

EJ put out an appeal to everyone she and her parents could think of, asking them to donate new or gently used bags and new stationery supplies.

"It started slowly," Joanne said, "but then it really picked up." With help from friends and from Brownie troupe 512, EJ made and distributed flyers asking for donations and baked cupcakes to raise funds so they could scoop up bargains whenever nearby stores put school supplies on sale.

The biggest boost came from Camp Yachad at the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey. At the Schwartzes' request, camp codirector Jodi Baxter asked campers if they would like to donate their camp backpacks on the last day. Around 500 almost new-looking bags came in.

"Piled up, they filled half our garage," EJ said. "Spread out, they'd have taken up the whole garage."

Some of that booty went to students at a school in Newark where Mindy Schwartz (no relation), EJ's teacher from the Beth Israel religious school, also teaches; the rest were for Washington Community School in Plainfield.

Last Friday, EJ went with a caravan of cars — driven by her mom, her dad, and a friend from next door — to deliver the supplies to the Plainfield school.

Deborah Boyd, Washington's community school coordinator and a third-generation alumna of the school herself, smiled as the cartloads of goods were wheeled in. Many of the school's students, she said, come from families that find it tough to provide the long list of back-to-school supplies. The donation — the school's first ever from a b'nei mitzva project — was going to give them a great start to the year.

"We're like a family here," she said. "Everyone pulls together."

With specially designated funds, the school was rebuilt a few years ago and turned into a focus for community revitalization. It has a public healthcare center on the premises, provides a "safe haven" for kids in the afternoon, and hosts a variety of after-hours programs for adults.

"Our teachers have worked out a way to identify which kids have the greatest need, and how to give them the bags without making them feel different," Boyd said. "You know how important it is for kids to feel they're the same as everyone else."

Andrew Schwartz opted to help children in a different way. Starting last fall, he participated in Buddy Ball of Edison, a program through which able-bodied teens help children with physical or developmental disabilities play sports. Andrew helped with sessions of baseball, soccer, basketball, and bowling.

Naturally athletic himself, it was a learning experience in how others struggle to do what comes so easily to him. "At first it was uncomfortable, but then I got used to being with them, and it was pretty enjoyable," he said, talking on the phone as he headed to a baseball competition in Cooperstown, NY.

With bowling during the summer, as with the other sports in the other seasons, he tried to explain the rules and techniques of the game to his companions. "They didn't understand the sports very well at first, but they did get a little bit of the picture," he said. "They were really friendly. They seemed to like everyone who came to help them."

At the get-together marking the end of the 2006-07 program, Andrew was recognized for his volunteer service. His parents talked about that with obvious pleasure.

"We're very involved in the community and working with [the Jewish Federation of Central NJ], and we involve the kids as much as we can," Joanne said. "They have such a wonderful life, with a nice home and friends and so many opportunities. We wanted them to do projects that would help make them aware that not everyone is as fortunate as they are."