ROANOKE, Va. – For some school districts, in 10 days students will be stepping into a new school year. This past weekend people donated school supplies of all kinds to the Load the Bus event to help students in need kickstart their year.
This past weekend the community loaded up several buses to help students in need.
But when you load, you also have to unload. So, Roanoke County schools did just that.
When unloading the buses this year, all the supplies filled up a gym.
“You just look, and I’m blown away every time. As soon as we unload the bus and see the generosity of our community and saying we want to help kids in need. This is, I’m speechless,” Chuck Lionberger with Roanoke County Public Schools said.
Hundreds, if not thousands of students and their families benefit from the school supplies donations all across the Roanoke Valley. And every year, the generosity grows.
” Load the Bus I did back in 2007...a tenth of this? Maybe, or so, and every year it gets bigger. Every year I need more and more space just to sort and handle the supplies. I used to be able to do this in one office room,” Lionberger said.
The need to help families and their students feel confident as they roll into school is crucial.
“And then boom here comes COVID and the pandemic and we start to see the recovery and now we see inflation issues that are going on and talks of maybe another recession coming up, our families are struggling,” he said.
Roanoke County Public Schools said if you are in need of school supplies, to let your school know and you can grab the supplies from your school counselor.