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By JOYANNA LOVE | Managing Editor

West End Neighborhood Watch will be helping students get ready for school again this year through its Back-2-School Giveaway on July 30 at 10 a.m. in the West End Park.

The giveaway is open to local kindergarten to 12th grade students to receive a gift card for school supplies.

Gift cards will be given away on a first-come, first-serve basis until they are gone.

Velma Tinsley of WENW said the organization started giving out gift cards instead of the actual school supplies because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students must be present in order for the family to receive the card.

A bagged lunch will also be served.

Tinsley said the annual event “tries to help parents alleviate some of the cost that they have with buying the supplies for the kids.”

Funds from the West End Neighborhood Watch membership dues and donations make the event possible each year.

“People are very generous,” Tinsley said. “Members who were born and raised in the West End community, but live elsewhere doing other things with their lives, they still give back from afar to make sure that this drive is a success every year.”

She said the organization is glad to be able to have the event every year.

“We are grateful to the community near and far who always seem to reach out and help us with this project every year,” Tinsley said.

She also thanked the volunteers that make the event possible.