Nyla and Alana brought their GlamTweens Give Back event to Patrick Henry Elementary School during the school’s Open House, providing students and teachers with school supplies and other items.
The girls gave away free backpacks, emergency hygiene kits and other school supplies to students, as well as classroom supplies such as glue sticks, chalk and Post-it Notes to teachers.
“The really remarkable part is that they purchased all of these items with their own money, organized the entire event themselves, communicated directly with the school principal, and even contacted Kona Ice to arrange for them to set up outside the school. And here’s my favorite part: neither of them has ever attended Patrick Henry Elementary or Martinsville City Schools,” said Callie Heitala, Martinsville schools communications and community outreach coordinator.
“We’re really excited to do something like this, and it took a lot of time,” Nyla said.
Alana said she had accumulated a large number of school supplies and wanted to find a way to donate them.
“I had like so many school supplies, and I didn’t know what to do with them, so I decided to donate them, and so I looked it up, so schools in Martinsville,” she said.
Alana said Martinsville was selected “because we know that this school doesn’t have lots of money and we want to donate to them.”
The girls began planning the event in April.
They also operate their own business, GlamTweens, where they make bracelets.
Hietala said the girls intentionally chose Martinsville because they have family connections to the area. Alana said her mother graduated from Magna Vista, while Nyla said she has family in the area.
The girls said that while the communities where they live have more resources, they believed Martinsville students and teachers might not have the same access to supplies.
“They simply wanted to give back to a community where they knew there were people who could benefit,” Hietala said.
The girls also created a teacher shop where educators could pick up classroom supplies.
“We know that the school doesn’t have a lot of money and we wanted to donate to them,” Alana said.
The girls also provided emergency hygiene kits for fifth-grade girls.
“Every 25 people, we are giving out a special backpack, a really nice one,” Nyla said.
Caption:
Cousins Alana, left, and Nyla hosted the first GlamTweens Give Back event at Patrick Henry Elementary School. (Contributed)
