PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — WAVY-TV 10’s Operation School Supplies initiative continues this week.
To raise awareness and encourage people to donate during a typical year, we visit drop off sites and introduce you to a few of our sponsors. This year we’re meeting with sponsors virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
This week, we spoke to Brian Schools, the president and CEO of Chartway Federal Credit Union, and Elisa Wills, the chief development officer for Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, about their involvement in Operation School Supplies.
“We believe very heavily in education,” explained Brian Schools. “Anything we can do to help, we feel it’s our responsibility to give back.”
Schools says, this year, it’s more important than ever to get the community behind supporting education.
“Everybody can do their part,” Schools said. “I mean this is the hardest year I would imagine many of us have had in our lifetimes. And there’s probably some things, believe it or not, that we haven’t spent that we could have. Maybe this is a chance to redeploy a little bit of that funding into something for someone else. “
Wills, with Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, says they want to help every child get the tools they need to succeed this school year.
“We want to support the students. Even with the current situation, whether students are going to be in schools or at home, we want to make sure they have school supplies and are starting the year off fresh, are ready for school, ready for classes to start,” Wills said.
“Everyone in the community, can become involved, support the schools, support what they’re doing. Everything from a box of crayons, to a new binder, to a fresh notebook, is going to make a difference this year for our students,” Wills continued.
If you’d like to contribute to Operation School Supplies we are collecting online donations through the United Way.
We are also still collecting school supplies at our sponsor locations and distributing them to local school systems as we’ve done in the past.