It was a school supply wonderland inside Watauga High School in Boone last Saturday morning.
Nearly 2,000 kids and their parents made their way through the halls for the 12th annual Back 2 School Festival, picking out brand new backpacks for the start of classes on the 18th.
Scarlett Triplett was all smiles as she tried on a pink, sequined book bag. It comes with a matching water bottle, but those aren’t the only treasures she’s discovered today.
“Shoes, socks, that’s all," she said proudly.
She’s about to start Pre-K, so this is her first time at the Back 2 School Festival.
When asked how she was feeling, Triplett let out a squeal of joy. That isn’t uncommon around here, according to longtime volunteer Tara Stollenmaier. She’s one of hundreds of people who make this happen every year.
“We get a feeling of watching them like you would your kid on Christmas morning, right? They're just so excited to be here," she said.
And that’s the goal. While the Back 2 School Festival nonprofit sets out to support families in need and help students start school prepared, nobody wants them to feel like they’re just getting a handout. They want the festival to be fun.
“We've had COVID, now the hurricane, and so sometimes it's harder to come back to school, and the excitement we can bring is contagious," Stollenmaier said. "We still get goosebumps when it’s all set up.”
For these folks, school supply shopping is a year-round activity on top of their regular jobs. They look for sales, order in bulk and work with businesses to arrange discounts.
Brian Crutchfield, who started the festival with his late wife, Kathy, remembers traveling out of town in order to shop at different stores. Shoes were her specialty.
“Back then, we used to fill up our cars with shoes as much as we could," he said. "Driving back from Winston in an SUV, where you can't see out the back mirror because it's totally full of shoes. And then our downstairs became shoe central.”
She died six years ago, but volunteers have carried on her tradition of hauling in hundreds of shoes straight from their houses.
Now, the cafeteria is filled with stacks of boxes containing sparkly Skechers, bright red Reeboks and leather cowboy boots. For an extra special touch, volunteers hung a banner reading: “Kathy’s Corner.”
“She'd be very proud," Crutchfield said. "She'd be very proud.”
Once the kids have picked out their shoes and backpacks, they head to the gym for the rest of the supplies they need in the colors they want.
Almost like trick-or-treating, they move from one volunteer to the next picking out their folders, notebooks, pencils and more, and dropping the goods into their new backpacks. There’s even some candy, too.
And the festival doesn’t stop there. Over in the high school’s cosmetology room, volunteers are getting kids ready for school in a different way — with fresh haircuts.
Jezabel LeBatard is one of nine stylists from Mane Habit Salon who took the day off work to come cut hair for free at the festival. She’s done this for more than five years now.
“Sometimes I'll get the same kids, and so I can kind of see what they're doing every year and just kind of catch up with them," LeBatard said. "It's kind of fun.”
The stylists did more than 100 haircuts this year. Volunteers say all of this goes a long way in making kids feel confident and excited for school.
It also eases a heavy burden for parents, many of whom are still recovering from Helene. Like Sally Booker, whose family was out of their house for seven months due to damage from the storm.
“We’re really grateful for the festival. Those of us that are out in the county, northwest side of the county, we were really hit hard with the hurricane," Booker said. "So just the extra help of not having to worry about school supplies is really huge.”
Helene put a strain on the festival this year, too. The organization usually has a stockpile of supplies ready for the following year. But when the storm hit, they gave what they had to families in need right away.
The local Walmart was also closed for months. And the businesses they partner with took a big financial hit with the loss of the area’s normal tourism season.
But Crutchfield says that didn’t stop the donations from coming in.
“What could have been a real budget crisis got solved pretty quickly by the same community," Crutchfield said. "So I think the hurricane brought people together. This event brings people together, too, and together we recover.”
Kids in Watauga County go back to school next week. And between the new shoes, backpacks, supplies and haircuts, they’ll be walking into class prepared— from head to toe.