Yeah, good morning, good morning, and welcome walk and walk. It's
time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you
trust, and right here, in a hot second, we're gonna get things
going. There we go. We've got our TV cameras working. Now,
that was a close connection we have now and then have a thing called low
bandwidth, and that's when everybody jumps on the computer at the same time.
So I don't know what's going on there, but high ladies, how are
we doing? Gal? Good morning, you're good. How are you?
I thought school just ended? I know us, it never ends here.
We always packed back the backpacks and oh my god, you're round. We
work you around. Pat and Cindy are here again. And I got to
tell you this is a never ending thing because you know, as long as
we've got kids, we've got kids who need things, and in order to
get everybody on the same page, we've got to give them pages to work
with, don't we Absolutely yes, I said, you've been an educator,
you know how this goes. I have. And you know, students are
always so glad for that last day of school, and after a little bit
of time and home, they're kind of like Okay, when is school going
to start again? Usually about three weeks, yes, and so we're ready
to help them start a good year. That's our goal is to make sure
they have the supplies that they need so that they can get started and have
a successful school year. All right. Now, when we talk about having
a successful school year, that starts with a full backpack full of the supplies
you need or to have it going. And one of the things that we
I guess pride is maybe something that we could say or we can't or target
is to provide every student that we provide with everything that that specific teacher has
asked for. And so that's what we've done for the last twenty years.
And we've been doing this twenty years. Yeah, it's been going on that
long. Long that long. Wow, I've been involved that. Oh my
goodness sake, it's incredible. I just remember always the getting ready for school
with my parents. They were like, oh gosh, running back to so
munchy, how are we going to do this? You know, because we
had four all in a clumb Oh Wow. Yeah, yeah, why are
so expensive they are? Now? I will tell you what, I don't
think it was quite that bad back then. It didn't seem to be so
dire. But my goodness sakes, all I remember was that, you know,
every now and then, some kids had this thing called this trapper keeper.
Yes, yeah, I'm like, dog, how did you get that?
Gut an order? Well, what's funny is there are a couple of
grades that require those separate notebooks recall trapper keepers, and the kids that don't
get them are like, whoa, I won't one of those. We're like,
we're sorry, but we can only give those two the ones that the
teachers requested. They're expensive, expensive, Yeah, but that was always a
big deal. But I see we're getting a lot of help from a lot
of different folks in order to further this, to make sure that the kids
can start school confident and prepared. Yes, and I see where my friends
at the Knights of Columbus. Boy do they do breakfast. They do a
wonderful breakfast. That and fish, but they don't have fish for breakfast and
two different things. But you are welcome to come this coming Sunday, Nights
of Columbus will let us have another pancake breakfast at Father Lynch Hall, and
we would love to see everyone there. It's ten dollars all you can eat.
You know, they have an egg hessero and sausage and bacon and biscuits
and gravy and pancakes. Pancakes. Yeah, we won't forget the pancakes.
Not so the big ones like you saw in that movie Uncle Buck where he
had to use a snowshelll to turn them over. But they're good size,
they are. They're good size. And this all helps with Washington County school
supply drive. Otherwise, knowing is back the backpacks now coming up on the
twenty second, oh man, going all out. You're calling out the dogs.
Well, one of the good things you said. There are a number
of people that are helping us in town. And at Woods is another organization
in town that provides the hot dogs and the drinks. Two hot dogs and
a drink just for a dollar. That's it, and that's it. That's
the best bays And then we provide we'll have chips and baked goods for sale.
So come on out to add was We have some people that come out.
I think last year or the year before, somebody came out. They
were having like a family reunion. They bought like forty hot divings. So
we're just away. Now I got it, you know, and city I
see we have dessert there, right, but it's kind of like calorie neutral
because you're gonna have to walk around out what's when you're done? Right,
So don't be afraid. June twenty second is a warm day. Oh yeah,
so you love those cold drinks. Yes. The best part of it
all is that those proceeds benefit us and being able to buy school supplies and
help the kids. Oh it is I need to throw in. We were
talking about other people. The Masons had a pancake breakfast for us a few
weeks ago, and well they do that too. They're able too. So
we are so fortunate to have people in the community that are willing to help
us do projects and that they give us the proceeds and it really helps us
a lot. Well, that is wonderful. And the hits keep coming because
coming up in July, I see the folks at Saint Luke's are going to
help you out. They are very helpful. Not only do they let us
have a bingo night there, they let us bring our supplies in in June
and they stay there until August. So Saint Luke's is just an invaluable part
of this community. So y'all kind of like join at the hip there,
huh, we are during that time. I don't want to even think about
saving. No, this bingo. This is kind of fun here because not
only do you have fun playing bingo, I mean even if you lose,
you have fun, but you're doing this for a great cause, which is
of course back exactly. And not only will you be able to play bingo,
you'll be able to eat dinner there. You see, you start at
five point thirty, so we'll be having hot dogs again and chips and baked
goods that night as well. And there will be wonderful prizes to win as
well. We have baskets and gift cards and yes, really good stuff.
Well that is great. It just keeps happening. Now we've got what is
this go live business I'm seeing here that has my attention. Well, we
have started having applications online. It has helped us tremendously because with the paperwork
we have to import everything that we can. We still do live applications at
a copy mission and at Mary Martha out Reach, and when we do those
people can come in person and fill out the application. However, we've made
it easier because they can go on live. I sit on live, but
I mean live online. I think they got it. Yeah, I don't
worry about it. I was following you and then they can fill out and
it's really easier now for most of the people that we help. This is
really cool. So when does the shopping take place, because we're doing a
lot of five around. Whenever we got special on something, you do right
out. Yes, And unfortunately they are not as many cells as there used
to be, so we are really looking for that, trying to find more
and more sales. So we're constantly on the outlook. And some of the
times now we've had to resort to going online ourselves to find supplies because we
can't find them locally. Wow, that's more. A little blue trucks are
around now, that's hire because we bought everything we could hear and then we
went to a couple of places there and our cars were loaded. Oh my.
One of the things that we've done as well is when we're vacationing someplace
and we can see a good school supply sell, we grab it and bring
it back with us. Wow. If you have a car, if you
have a car, I'm not ut fling it back. Oh my, yeah,
we'll try to ask questions about that stuff. Yeah, exactly. Now,
I understand this is kind of a tight nique group, but you're always
looking for extra folks to come on in and be a part of the team.
It's like a well oiled machine, isn't it. It is actually volunteers
of what makes us work. We call it Sprint weekend when we put everything
at Saint Luke's and actually pack the backpacks and hand them out to the kids.
But having volunteers, having people invested in what we do for the reasons
that we do, it makes it all work. That that awe is the
machine. Wow, I understand that everybody's got their job and they just they
can almost do a blind pold. I couldn't much. That is very true.
And we have, excuse me, so many people that help us in
one group. I hate to signal or sing single thank you, pat single
out one group, but the Ladies Golf Association at Hill Christ they will help
us buy things that are a little more expensive. So if any other groups,
if you hear that and you want to help us maybe buy a certain
project or a product, please let us know and then the churches are helping
us out. Every month, Steve Clark, one of our board members,
is contacted the churches and give them a list and they give us so much
and sometimes they will adopt a product and I lie that product. I like
anybody listening, if you'd like to adopt a product, just contact us pack
the Backpacks dot org online and that's how you can reach us. We'd love
to hear. We'd love to hear from you. So, like, you
know, if you want to be the guy that adopts the number two pencil,
you can be that. Absolutely. We want to be pencil guy.
I want to be the fat pencil guy. So yeah, so there you
go. Now, do you have a website or a Facebook page? We
have both? Both? Okay, good packth Backpacks dot org is our website
and the Facebook page that kind of gives you things pretty much in the minute
and everything. I imagine that the website gives the big overview about what you're
all about and explains the five oh one, three c yes, and the
opportunity to donate there as well. Oh really all of these things that are
going on as far as fundraisers. If you can't attend, feel free to
go, not just feel free, but we hope that you would go online
and donate as well. We're one of the organizations in town that don't have
a dedicated sponsor or. We're not a United Way agency, so what we
provide, the funds that we provide come from small fundraisers like these and for
from us sometimes, but also from individuals that would like to help. Wow.
And also on that note what Pat said, we have no paid people
on our board. We are all volunteers. So everything that we do comes
out of our time because of our love for the kids and the teachers and
trying to support the community. So and so every dollar that's donated goes for
that effort as well. This is this is amazing. This is where it
kind of all comes together, and this kind of personisfying Martinsville. Really I
agree, yeah, because I don't think there's a person I know that would,
you know, say well, yeah if you pay me, But if
you ask them real nice, they'll say all volunteer, yeah, yeah,
yeah, So wow, this is really good. And the weekend that we
packed will be what the first weekend in August and August, and we would
love to see anybody there. We normally get a lot of volunteers, which
is great because that helps us pack very quickly and finish in just a few
days, where if we did it ourselves it would take and it used to
you said, this is a well oiled machine. We debrief after every time
every week year that we do this, and we find things that work well
and some things we discard, and so we continue to define it and refine
it. But one of the things that will happen is online will be an
opportunity. We'll have sign up Genius there with the days that we need volunteers
and for the jobs that we need volunteers for as well, and so they
can just go and sign up Genius and sign up. That's great. How
many bags do you have? Estimate do you do? Last year was like
twenty seven hundred. I was going to say twenty seven hundred. Yeah,
I think that's our that was the that's the most we've done. That's that's
still a lot. But that's the need, folks, that's the reality.
That is the need. That is reality, that is what is true.
Unfortunately, each year the need gets greater. And I hear that from a
lot of nonprofits, and i'magined to hear that from teachers too. Definitely,
these kids aren't going to say, uh, they're not going to do that
because they don't know. They really just don't that's true. But the teachers
will be observant. I want to thank you ladies for both coming in and
grace in our studios today. It's always wonderful to have bright smiles and bright
conversations. We appreciate your having it, always appreciate it. Well. You
count on me on that first one. Put me down for five breakfasts,
and we're gonna throw somebody there at the pack the pack. Thank you so
much, Thank you very much. The mission of Paralyzed Veterans of America is clear.