Local man hosting drive-up event to hand out school supplies, motivate kids

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    St. Louis, MO (KMOV) — Rides N’ School Supplies will be rolling into St. Louis again Saturday.

The event is put on by Derrick Walker after his love for cars and motorcycles transformed into motivating the youth in his North City community.

At first, Walker says the pandemic made him not want to have it this year, then he quickly realized now more than ever more families are without.

Walker expects to have more than 250 of the coolest cars and motorcycles will pull in the parking lot of O’Fallon Park YMCA between noon and 4 p.m. His whole goal is to give kids a look at what kids can have if they apply themselves and work hard in school.

News 4 was there as hundreds of backpacks full of supplies were being dropped off for the kids who live near there. Walker says access and resources are not always readily available to kids in certain urban neighborhoods.

“For me, I didn’t see things like this growing up in the northside of St. Louis,” said Walker. “So we want to bring this to the kids, bring them something fresh, something new . also bring them something motivational. we have these cars out here. at an early age for me, shiny cars was my first tangible goal. and once I realized that… I realized I can get anything.”

This will be another full community event again this year – partnering with the Korey Johnson Foundation, city leaders and other organizations.

In 2019 Rides N’ School Supplies gave more than a $1,000 to a teacher and student. This year Walker plans to double that amount.

This year it will be more of a drive-up event because of COVID-19, but the same energy and motivation behind it will still be strong, Walker says.

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