Nashville, Tenn. - It was a great first day at school for over 300 children served by Youth Villages of Middle Tennessee. They were the recipients of new backpacks filled with school supplies, collected and donated by the sales associates and employees of Crye-Leike, Realtors in Middle Tennessee.

"Most of the children and adolescents in our care have had to move from place to place and have very little to call their own," said Patti Bryan, development director of Youth Villages in Middle Tennessee. "Backpacks for students now have become essential items which most children take for granted. In many ways, having new backpacks of their own on that all-important first day of school is a big boost for our Youth Villages' children."

Supporting Youth Villages is not new to Crye-Leike. In addition to Crye-Leike's 22 branch offices in Middle Tennessee sponsoring this back-to-school project over the past four years, Crye-Leike also holds its annual fund-raiser called Campaign for Children for the past 23 years, said company officials. Campaign for Children promotes the sale of holiday greeting cards, designed by Youth Villages' children. All proceeds raised are used to purchase holiday gifts for the children at Youth Villages and to support their mentoring programs. To date, Crye-Leike has raised in excess of $400,000 for Youth Villages.

Youth Villages (www.youthvillages.org) offers help and hope to more than 8,000 troubled children and their families each year (over 1,500 in Nashville and Middle Tennessee) through a continuum of care that ensures treatment in the most effective, least restrictive environment. Services include: home-based counseling, therapeutic foster care and adoption services, residential treatment, group homes and transitional living services. Additionally, Youth Villages offers specialized crisis services to families in crisis across the state, and this past year made more that 7,000 face-to-face assessments.

Today, more than 1,100 counselors, teachers and skilled support staff provide Youth Villages' services from offices in 33 locations throughout Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and Washington D.C. Youth Villages has five offices in Middle Tennessee: Nashville, Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville and Dickson.

Crye-Leike (www.crye-leike.com), a full service real estate company for 28 years, is the nation's 10th largest real estate company and the largest serving Tennessee and the Mid-South. It has a network of over 3,000 sales associates and 89 branch and franchise offices located in 46 counties throughout a six-state southern region in Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky and Florida. Sales associates in the Greater Nashville area currently total over 900.

To learn more about how to organize a Youth Villages' fund-raiser in your office, contact Patti Bryan at 615/250-7207.