Members of Firmly Rooted Ministries in Oxford were doing their part on Thursday, Aug. 25 to help students get ready for the upcoming school year.

They stuffed nearly 300 backpacks with notebooks, pencils and other school supplies. Each will go to an Oxford student in need.

Kimberly Donnelly, of Firmly Rooted Ministries, is a former teacher. She said that her time working in education revealed how much having the proper school supplies can mean for a student.

“Those fresh new school supplies are just so encouraging,” she said. “On day one, it (puts) those, perhaps, low-income students on the same playing field as the rest. We hope this serves as a source of encouragement for the family and also lets them know that someone cares enough to provide that and that this helps the students start (the school year) a little bit lighter and happier.”

Firmly Rooted Pastor Tom Donnelly worked side-by-side with school officials to bring the supplies to those who needed it most.”We’ve had seven kids, and even though starting school was a drudgery sometimes … going to pick up the school supplies you needed, I mean that was essential. To go to school and to not have what you need is already a set-back,” he said.

Oxford Schools Superintendent Tim Throne said it was a pleasant surprise to hear about Firmly Rooted Ministries plan to give back to the community.

“I want to give a big shout-out to Firmly Rooted Ministries for putting this together,” he said. “I know it’s not easy to say, ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ I know there’s a lot of organization, collecting, storing and distributing that goes into it, and I just really appreciate what Tom and (everyone at) Firmly Rooted Ministries have done for our students.”

Distribution of the backpacks will be left up to the staff of each school.

Along with the donations from members of Firmly Rooted Ministries, Tom said they also received donations from community members and several Oxford businesses, including Soothe Your Soul.

The Donnellys said they plan to make this an annual effort.

According to Tom, Firmly Rooted Ministries also received several boxes filled with age-appropriate bibles and biblical story books for students from preschool to high school.

Oxford residents are invited to pick them up from the Firmly Rooted Ministries office in downtown Oxford at18 N. Washington St., Suite 3.