Friday 12th December 2025

Holiday Pack the Backpack: Mrs. Caster

Pack the Backpack, presented by Central Office Supply, a division of Minuteman and Kix 101.1! Each month during the school year, we will be awarding $101 to a Kix Country classroom to help out with supplies. We will award the prize on the last Wednesday of the month. You can listen to each new winner at 8:30a on the Morning Kix Start.

Our first Holiday Edition of Pack the Backpack winner is Mrs. Kendra Caster, 2nd Grade Teacher at East Marshall Elementary in Laurel. She was nominated by a parent, Lydia Wolken. Here is what Lydia wrote to Kix 101.1.:

Mrs. Caster is a great candidate for Pack the Backpack for so many reason, but I will keep it short and name a few. Kendra began her teacher career at the beginning of the 2019 school year and quickly had to adapt her teaching to accommodate the COVID pandemic, teaching 25+ 2nd graders virtually, and doing all of this while her husband was deployed for a year. Despite all the difficulties in the last 2 years, she did an amazing job providing all that she could to educate her students while also keeping them safe. She spends countless hours planning, prepping, and helping students in any way that she can and never hesitates to reach into her own pockets to make sure her students have what they need. The last year has been hard financially on many families, not excluding our teachers. But they never stop using their own money, time, and resources to better the students in their classrooms. I am so proud of the teacher that Kendra is and any parent would be lucky to have their child be in her class.

Thank you!

Take a listen to our surprise interview with Mrs. Caster below!

Nominate your Kix Country class by submitting a letter to us at backpack@kixweb.com.

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