Backpack giveaway helps students in need ready for classes

VERNON, AL (WCBI) – Most schools will be back in session next week and several local organizations are helping families check items off the shopping list. “It’s just amazing to see these young kids faces when they get to leave,” Ethan Wilkins said. Ethan Wilkins will be a senior at Lamar County High school. He’s one of the many students who dropped by this backpack giveaway to pick out one he liked. “I mean it’s huge because you’re carrying these books around and they’re heavy. Maybe you don’t have the money to afford a locker like my family wasn’t able to at one time,” Wiklins said. “But, they helped us out and we were able to get backpack and supplies and didn’t have to pay that burden on your family and all these other things.” Bjanka Myles founded the Live Like 14 Foundation in memory of her son Bryce Elijah Myles who died in 2015. “When Bryce passed, he touched so many that I never knew, that my husband, my late husband and I never knew. But after he passed, we were getting kids coming to the house and saying how he helped them, how he encouraged them, and what all he’d done that we didn’t know. That’s what this is about, it’s about giving,” Myles said. Since its inception, the foundation has been supplying backpacks to children in the neighboring counties. And the effort and the impact have grown each year. “But after the first year, we went from 200 backpacks to 300 backpacks to 400 backpacks,” Myles said. “It’s just been impactful every year that I’ve come out and helped,” Wilkins added. Along with giving away backpacks, for students in Lamar County, some backpacks are full of school supplies so parents don’t have to pay. “There are a lot of underprivileged children that don’t get the proper supplies they need at the beginning of the year and if we’re able to give them this and make them feel confident at the start of their year, prayerfully, they will have a successful year,” Myles said. If your child is still in need of a backpack and attending a school in Lamar County, extra backpacks will be donated to the schools. If you would like to donate to the Live Like 14 Foundation, visit their website.