The annual event was held in the Douglass Ballfield next to the Riverview Splash Pad, because its usual home, the V.O. Dobbins Community Center gym is undergoing renovations.
To see pictures from the celebration, click Riverview Back to School Celebration 2009.
The celebration is sponsored every year by the Kingsport Weed and Seed office of the South Central Kingsport Community Development Corporation.
"Every year during the summer, Weed and Seed gets a supply list from the Kingsport city school system," says Jeannie Hodge of the local Weed and Seed office. "It's a list of what every student will need to at least start every grade level from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Weed and Seed office then goes out and either purchases those materials or tries to get them donated, so our students will be ready for classes."
At the event, kids get pizza and soft drinks. The kids enjoyed that, and they also liked getting to know their fellow students, some of whom they hadn't seen all summer long. The kids and their parents filled out forms, picked up their school supplies and then hit the pizza and drinks.
They also got a tee-shirt and a backpack with all of their supplies inside.
Also joining in the celebration with exhibits were the local Headstart office, whose classes have temporarily been relocated to the old Dickson School while the Dobbins Center renovations are being done... and the local Drug Task Force walk-through trailer, whose displays and demonstrations on illegal drug use and prevention is always a big hit with visiting children.
With the Splash Pad so close by, the kids could not resist getting wet. "Those that were dressed for swimming, went from the pizza to the water," says Jeannie. Plenty of them were not dressed for it, but if their parents didn't mind, it was hot enough for them to get wet fully clothed. When the clouds came in and the wind blew a little, some of the kids got cooled off with their wet clothes, but they sure did enjoy it."
