LIZEMORES, W.Va. — About 140 students at Lizemore Elementary School in Clay County climbed aboard the bus for home after the first day of school Thursday with a brand new backpack. The backpacks, loaded with school supplies, were given to every child as part of a flood relief donation through the Kids in Need Foundation.
“Some of them came to school this morning without a backpack and we told them don’t worry about it,” said Principal Tina Burnette.”We showed them the big pile in the cafeteria and told them one of those will be yours and that put a big smile on their face.”
Lizemore didn’t incur nearly as much damage as other schools in the flood zone in June, but parts of the community where the students reside were hard hit. Burnette said she was sure some of the children had seen their homes inundated with water, but couldn’t be sure how many were flood victims. She added, if they were impacted they weren’t sharing much about it at a school.
“We have sharing time and not very many of them have mentioned it,” she said. “You know how resilient kids are. I don’t’ know if they’re just glad to be here and don’t want to talk about it or if they didn’t suffer any damage or at least very much damage.”