CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 19 Operation Homefront is in its 20th year of operation and has given out more than 500,000 backpacks nationwide to military families. Contributed photo Operation Homefront, which helps military families, is another organization that has been helping students get ready for school for a number of years. "Operation Homefront is a nonprofit organization which helps build strong, stable and secure military families, so this was our way to say thank you to the families who do so much," says Samantha Martin, area manager for Operation Homefront. Martin estimated the organization would distribute 700 backpacks filled with school supplies for military children at this year's event, which was scheduled for Aug. 6. "We are in our 20th year of operation and have given out over 500,000 backpacks nationwide to our military families," Martin says. One of the newest groups helping with back-to-school efforts is the Fayetteville Woodpeckers. e Woodpeckers worked with almost two dozen nonprofit organizations for their first Back to School Bash, which was scheduled for Aug. 5 at Segra Stadium. "e goal was to reach out to every organization in town that was hosting a back-to-school event and create one large event," says Kristen Nett, manager of community and media relations for the Woodpeckers. e goal, Nett says, was for each child to visit more than 20 tables where they would learn about available community resources and get an item they need for school. Brooks says he doesn't plan to stop collecting school supplies and sharing community resources at the Gotcha' Back event. He says he has heard stories throughout the years of the effect it has on the lives of area families, and knowing how it helps others keeps him going. "You don't know at the time what kind of impact you are making, but to find out later is just inspirational,'' Brooks says. "I was looking at stopping a few years in when volunteers had moved on and I was needing new people to help when a woman stopped in my barbershop with a donation. She said to me that I wouldn't remember her, but she got supplies for her four children aer her house caught on fire and she needed help. "She came in with a donation, wanting to give back to the event that had helped her, to say thank you for getting her through a time. at is why I do what I do. It's embedded in me now."

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