Article originally published in the Panama City News Herald.

PANAMA CITY — Hurricane Michael inspired the Bay County chapter of the NAACP to expand their vision for their annual Back to School Family, Friends and Fun Day at the Glenwood Community Center on Saturday.

The organization pushed to invite more nonprofits and civic organizations to attend and serve students and families in Glenwood. The annual voter registration drive and family event this year also had tables with workers from veterans organizations, two PanCare mobile clinics and local disaster recovery groups.

“This is a way of centralizing and disseminating the information under one roof,” said Dinah Crayton, first vice president of the Bay County branch of the NAACP. “Families that are still recovering from Hurricane Michael may not be aware of programs headquartered in other parts of Bay County, so bringing the organizations to Glenwood can help those in need find help. People know about the CRC (Community Resource Center) but have never been there.”

Crayton said there’s several reasons why people have never visited the CRC, based in the Bay County Public Library, such as fear, lack of transportation and not knowing where to start or where to go.

In addition to information, local civic and church groups hosted activities and gave out clothes, school supplies and lunch. Local alumni chapters of historically Black sororities filled more than 300 backpacks with school supplies.

Aviva Burris, dressed head to toe in red, black and white with a delta print scarf, and Raslean Allen, with black, pink and green glasses, bracelets and a polo, packed children’s backpacks at the Glenwood Community Center.

“The Zetas, the Sigma Gammas, we all work together for one common cause,” Allen said.

Stacked four deep, the backpacks come in sizes for students from kindergarten to high school.

“It’s everything you need for school,” Burris said.

Latisha Stanley brought her two sons to the event.

Her youngest son will start kindergarten at Cherry Street Elementary School this fall, and often events will only have backpacks too large for small children. Every day this summer he has told her he is ready for school, she said.

“It’s great that they had backpacks for really little kids,” she said.