A back-to-school lesson in charity
The News Journal
August 30, 2009
by: Terri Sanginiti
Wilmington kids in need get backpacks stuffed with school supplies
Eleven-year-old Nasir Roane of Wilmington, who started classes at Prestige Academy last week, was grateful Saturday for the free backpack he received courtesy of Greg Davis Ministries International.
So was 5-year-old Dejah Ngobeh, who begins kindergarten Tuesday at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, off Walther Road, south of Old Baltimore Pike.
"I was trying to figure out how I was going to get her school supplies," mother Lisa said. "I probably would have gotten her one, but it probably wouldn't have been as nice."
Bishop Greg Davis of Wilmington's River of Life Church, who organized the local Operation Backpack 2009 outreach program, used a U-Haul truck to make seven stops throughout the city between 2:20 and 6:50 p.m.
By days end, he gave out about 4,000 backpacks stuffed with school supplies and imprinted with the name of his ministry as well as Advance America Cash Advance and Ebanezer Full Gospel Baptist Church in Downingtown, Pa., which helped sponsor the event.
When he got to the third stop of the day -- the Herman Holloway park at Fifth and Lombard streets -- kids, parents and grandparents already were lined up and had filled out the required forms listing their names and addresses.
Davis was greeted with the same cheers at Sixth and Madison streets in West Center City and Third and Connell streets on the west side, where 400 backpacks were handed out at each stop.
"The response has been overwhelming," the Pentecostal preacher said. The joy on their faces and the parents' faces is exciting for me to see."
Ministries spokeswoman Nina Parker said they were out at Wal-Mart on Centerville Road last week seeking donations of school supplies to fill the backpacks from shoppers.
"It was a rainy Saturday, and the people were very generous," she said.
Advance America Cash Advance provided $10,000 of the $20,000 to fund the program.
Davis brought along the firm's director of corporate development, former Denver Bronco's wide receiver Willie Green, to help hand out the school supplies.
"It's for a great cause," Green said. "For him to do it in Wilmington, I'm very impressed."
Green had an unofficial line forming of his own.
The Super Bowl winner was autographing the backpacks for kids.
Dakere Fletcher, 6, who will start school Monday at Stubbs Elementary School in Wilmington, was in line to get a bookbag signed.
Fletcher didn't exactly know who Green was, but he did know "he's a football player."
Green got a chuckle, he said, out of one young lady who offered him 50 cents for his Super Bowl ring.
"Not too many people have them," he said. "It's something you value and cherish."
One thousand more backpacks will be distributed to the church in Downingtown, Pa.
"Wilmington got the big bulk of them," he said. "Next year, were going to distribute 10,000, and expand the mission to other states."
