PORTSMOUTH, Va. - A sea of backpacks cover the floor Grove Church's complex in Portsmouth.
Stacks of pencils are waiting to be sharpened and pencil cases are waiting to be filled. The school year is right around the corner and the nonprofit, Vision Driven 757 is making sure kids are prepared.
"We have about 170 fully-stocked backpacks that we'll be giving out," said Lindsey Anderson, the Executive Director of Vision Driven 757 Inc.
Volunteers of all ages spent the morning sorting binders, notebooks and even personal protective equipment, but that's not all.
"We have an abundance of headphones that we'll be giving out for the distance learning. We've got 12 families that will be receiving laptops or desktop computers today," Anderson said.
Anderson said she knows virtual learning may be tough on families, especially ones that are low-income.
"[There] was a lot of discussions especially on social media - what are we going to do if they do virtual? I have four kids, I have one computer and it's not that great of a computer so immediately I knew I wanted do laptops and computers, it was just getting the resources and the community really came through with those," she said.
Rising high school senior Denasia Smallwood, who is helping packbags with her organization ICONZ, said "I hope this gives [the kids] the encouragement, like you can do it! It's different but you know education is important so just keep going."
Kyrei Jones' Vann, another member of ICONZ, echoed her sentiment adding that, "It's good to give back to the community because, you know, not everyone is fortunate." He said giving back will help make the world a better place.
So because of social distancing guidelines, car by car, families were gifted the backpacks. Now every child is ready to win the school year.
Anderson said, "even though we can't gather like we would normally gather we can still be together and you know, share and love on each other."
