The Lakeview community displayed unwavering support for childhood education on Saturday, showcasing two programs to highlight the importance of learning.
To kick off the day, the Lakeview branch of the NAACP partnered with the Lakeview Public Library to host the 5th Annual Back To School Giveaway.
“Because we live in a middle class area, we think that the need is not there,” Sheila Duke, first vice president of the Lakeview NAACP, said.
Doris Hicks-Newkirk, branch president and a former educator, launched the event five years ago to highlight the importance of education for children in the community. The giveaway allows the NAACP to not only advocate for local education, but also to support it.
“Our first year, when we had so many different families coming, we were like, ‘This is something that we have to do annually,’” Duke said. “So five years later, to see this bigger, growing, touching more families, just giving them a great start to the beginning of an academic year, is amazing.”
Sponsors and volunteers gathered in the library’s parking lot, connecting with community members, listening to music, and giving back. All were invited to attend the giveaway and take home any supplies they needed.
More than 300 backpacks filled with supplies were distributed. Children and parents were able to pick up a backpack, grab a snack, and sort through any extra school supplies that were available to them. To entertain the kids, a bounce house was set up in the shade.
Organizations donated their time, money and supplies, and they were joined by community partners, including the sororities Delta Sigma Theta and Sigma Gamma Rho, and the fraternities Kappa Alpha Psi and Alpha Phi Alpha, Creative Focus Designs, Little Minds Universe, and more.
“It takes all of us to get this thing together every year,” Duke said. “Every organization donates, so it’s a huge impact for the community.”
Alfred Taylor, of Roosevelt, a member of the Nassau-Suffolk alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, said his fraternity has been involved with the giveaway for three years.
The night before the event, Taylor and other volunteers packed book bags with notebooks, pencils, crayons, and more.
“A community like Lakeview, a lot of these kids need things, and it’s necessary for us to be able to provide those things like school supplies,” Taylor said.
“The kids need these tools really to sustain their education,” he added. “Something as small as a pen could be the difference between them getting the information and not getting the information. They need the basic tools needed to do their job.”
Not only does the library sponsor the event, but it also helps organize space, assist with set up, and provide access to the library’s facilities.
“It means a lot to be able to pour back into the community,” Lisa Ortiz, president of the library’s board of trustees, said. “Lakeview is such a special community, and if any student or a child is in need of anything, we always try to make sure that need is met.”
After collecting the school supplies, parents and their children crossed over Woodfield Road to Harold Walker Memorial Park, where Moms Who Care, Inc., a Lakeview-based, non-profit organization that promotes literacy, was prepared to speak to them.
“We think it’s very important to remind parents of the importance of reading on a regular basis with their children,” Aisha Demosthenes, the organization’s president and co-founder, said.
A speech pathologist, Demosthenes saw the importance of promoting literacy at home to support speech and language development, as well as overall academic success.
Volunteers with the organization visit communities across Long Island and New York City, attending different shelters, churches, community centers, PTA meetings, and more, to host their workshops. They provide parents with tips and tricks on how to make reading fun and integrate activities into the learning experience.
“We show parents how they can extend the conversation, centered around whatever book they’re reading,” Demosthenes, a Lakeview resident, said.
Saturday’s workshop was the final event of the organization’s summer season, which began with a kickoff workshop at the Lakeview Public Library in June. The group’s workshops typically include an informational discussion with parents, who then take home age-appropriate books made available in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Bangla.
By offering a diverse range of children’s books, covering a variety of topics and cultures, children can feel represented in the literature or have the opportunity to learn something new.
To celebrate the end of summer, the workshop included book giveaways, gift card raffles, refreshments, and art activities for the children.
“There are so many benefits,” Demosthenes said. “If you start reading to your child from birth, on a regular basis, a variety of books, the vocabulary and the experiences that they get just from books and learning about other cultures, other people, it gives your child this full deck of resources and information from the minute they step into a classroom.”
