GRPS students get backpacks, haircuts before new term

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Grand Rapids nonprofit is working to help students have a successful and safe school year.

Plenty of community members showed up at Alger Middle School Friday for a back-to-school bash.

Eula Logins, who has several kids who attend GRPS, said she knows how tough this time of the year can be for some parents.

“With school starting so early in the year now, it’s hard. Especially in the middle of the month, it’s kind of hard to come together and get everything together,” Logins said.

At Friday’s event, kids got a backpack, supplies like notebooks, and even a haircut or hairstyle for free.

The event was put on by Save A Life A Day Outreach Ministries, or SALAD, a Grand Rapids-based nonprofit that engages young people to keep them on the right track.

“We always have several different backpack giveaways where I feel like everybody needs to come together as one,” SALAD CEO William McFadden said. “When we bring people together I feel like it’s a unity thing.”

There was also a safety component involved. In May , a 13-year-old student was shot by another just outside of Alger Middle School, a shocking moment for parents.

“It’s very scary,” Terria McKinney, a GRPS parent, recalled.

SALAD partnered with GRPS staff to give out free gun locks to help prevent any similar situations.

“We just have to be adults and put locks on our firearms to keep the guns out of kids’ hands,” McFadden said. “That’s the thing. We want to change the narrative to let people know that Grand Rapids Public Schools is safe, and if we come together as a unit, we can be here.”

McKinney said she was glad to see efforts to protect children.

“It’s not a good thing for us to let it keep happening to us,” McKinney said.

GRPS students go back to class Monday.

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