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Small business owner donates school supplies to teachers using their own money to support students

One local business owner is donating supplies to help two Chesapeake teachers support their students.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — It's midway through the school year and that means school supplies tend to run low for teachers.

So, one local business is helping a couple of teachers make sure they don't pay out of their own pockets to support their students.

Kammi Nesbitt is a certified wedding event planner, based in Chesapeake. She owns Gold Rope Events.

With about $300 from her business, she donated various school supplies to two special teachers.

One recipient is Indian River High School’s 10th-grade teacher Dubois Scott. He entered the drawing to get school supplies for his class. 

"This is the first time I’ve ever won anything like this, so I say thank you,” Scott said.

“This is a blessing, for all of my students.”

In the mix of supplies, there are paper, folders, tissues, and hand sanitizers for flu season.

Scott spent about 20 years teaching in Chesapeake Public Schools. He said that this donation is especially handy when supplies dwindle mid-year and teachers pay out of pocket.

"We come into this profession because we love it. So, we’re going to always fill in the gap, but it would be nice if somebody helps us fill that gap,” he said.

Nesbitt also delivered supplies to 6th-grade teacher Sherita Saunders-Branch at Brighton Elementary School.

She said she pays for supplies on her own too, “because we go beyond the teacher.”

"I build a bond with my students. So, when they come to me and say we need this, I make sure I’m available and we have what they need. Or I reach out and find the resources that they need," Saunders-Branch said.

Nesbitt said the reactions from the teachers and students make the donations worth it.

“It means a lot because I have children of my own. To be able to give back to know that I’m doing my part because I heard them," she said. 

"I know people apply to other things, but small businesses we do as much as we can."

It’s one small business making a promise to teachers that their work beyond what’s asked, doesn’t go unnoticed all year long.

“I make sure that I come back and replenish those boxes that we gave them through the rest of the school year,” Nesbitt said.

Credit: Gold Rope Events

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