Being new to Lenoir County’s business community, the leaders of the Amazon distribution site in Kinston and its employees want to forge a connection with people who live here. They started this week with the youngest of the county’s residents and with the school supplies many will need to get off to a good start in the coming school year.

A donation accepted by LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams from Amazon on Wednesday will provide backpacks and school supplies to 300 K-12 students across the district. The donation comes as LCPS begins its annual solicitation for cash donations to purchase school supplies and as several businesses and nonprofits gear up to collect supplies for the district or specific schools. The Amazon donation, however, is the largest received by LCPS in many years.

“Given everything that’s going with the economy right now, I just think that we really wanted to be a part of the community and thought of what would be the best way for us to give back locally and in what way could we have a great impact not just for the parents but for the kids as well,” Kurtis Day, site lead at the Kinston facility, said.

“We’re new to the community. We’ve only been here a few months and as we continue to grow we’d like to be more involved with events and things that are going on,” he said.

Like all school supplies received or purchased by LCPS with donations, the Amazon gift will be distributed through the schools to the students who most need them, as identified by school counselors.

“It’s difficult, if not impossible, to succeed as a student if you don’t have the pencils and paper and other basic supplies required for school work. A segment of our students need help in this area every year, and LCPS is grateful that the people at Kinston’s Amazon facility recognized that need and stepped up to help fill that gap,” said Patrick Holmes, the district’s public information officer.

“Theirs is a very large donation and it will go a long way.”

The public can also help provide school supplies through two drives currently underway.

Local branches of the State Employees Credit Union are collecting supplies as part of a state effort coordinated through the governor’s office. Supplies are being collected at each SECU branch in the state and will be distributed to each public school district in the state.

Meanwhile, LCPS is asking for public support for its annual Adopt-A-Backpack fundraising campaign.

Cash donations to Adopt-A-Backpack provide grade specific school supplies for K-2 students, for students in grades 3-5 and for middle and high school students. A typical backpack for an elementary student contains pencils, a ballpoint pen, erasers, ruler, zippered pencil pouch, spiral notebook, notebook paper, colored pencils, markers, crayons and pocket folders. Older students get many of the same items, along with composition notebooks and binders.

Donations can be made by mail to Adopt-A-Backpack, Lenoir County Public Schools, PO Box 729, Kinston, NC 28502 or by visiting LCPS Central Services at 2017 W. Vernon Ave. Checks should be made payable to LCPS.