The Rumberos Jeep Club filled Fairhill Square Park with music, food, and backpacks on Sunday, August 23, 2026, as the club held its sixth annual Back-to-School Event. Hundreds of people gathered at 4th and Lehigh to receive free school supplies for children in the days before Philadelphia classrooms reopened. The joyful gathering felt more like a block party than a charity drive.

The Rumberos partnered with other local Jeep clubs, including Los Rebolcones, led by Yahira Rivera, and the Rock Life Jeepers, led by Leroy Kil, to make the giveaway event a reality. Members stocked tables with familiar essentials such as notebooks, pencils, crayons, and brightly colored backpacks, then began handing out the supplies to neighborhood children lined up near the concrete stage, where a live band played salsa loud enough to carry across Lehigh Avenue. “We are more than a Jeep Club,” said Maribel Oquendo, president of the Rumberos Jeep Club.

Oquendo and her crew are quickly becoming familiar faces in the neighborhoods the club serves. The Rumberos begin planning every event with the same question: what do the children and families need? That focus has carried the club well beyond Philadelphia. In recent years, members have brought supplies, toys and holiday meals to families in Trenton, New Jersey, and in Delaware.

Yahira Rivera, wearing the colorful shirt of the Los Rebolcones Jeep Club, said, “We are all working together and uniting across the area. Each club brings something special to the alliance.” Leroy Kil, of the Rock Life Jeepers, agreed with Yahira. “We may have started the clubs as a hobby, but we have found a purpose in helping our communities. Each club brings something special: rows of Jeeps, polished and gleaming like parade floats, lined the edge of the park. The club information can be found on Instagram. All the club members spoke with hope and a vision for a better future.

 The smell of burgers and hot dogs drifted from the food tables, and parents fanned themselves in the late-August heat while children, some already testing out their new backpacks, danced in front of the stage. For many families in Fairhill, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, the cost of school supplies is a real burden. A single backpack filled with required items can run more than $100 per child. Events like the Rumberos’ giveaway take that weight off parents’ shoulders and let children start the school year on equal footing with their classmates.

Maribel Oquendo explains, «The Rumberos Jeep Club started small in 2021 after we came together to help victims of a tragic fire in the community, and that heart for the community continues to grow.» The Rumberos have become known throughout North Philadelphia for their Easter egg hunts, toy drives, and back-to-school events, all of which are organized by volunteers who spend their own time and money to make them happen. Their vehicles draw the crowds, but it is the club’s attention to families that keeps neighbors coming back year after year.

“We are the Rumbero Jeep Club, and we are more than a Jeep Club; we are community, and we are family, said Maribel Oquendo, leader of the Rumberos.