RICHMOND, Va. -- Located at 1716 East Main Street, Stars Kicks is typically filled wall to wall with sneakers. However, starting Saturday, they're hoping to fill the entire room with school supplies.
"We are collecting dry erase markers pencils, gallon bags, court bags, colored pencils crayons because it's from kids from kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade," said owner Yasmeen Lasheen.
She and her fiancé Tariq Muhammad opened the shoe store after both lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
Now after months of business in their new storefront, the couple is holding a back-to-school drive for three Richmond City Schools.
"We actually have three schools involved. So we have two elementary schools and middle schools. We have JB Fisher Elementary, Broad Rock Elementary and we have buncha middle schools involved," said Lasheen.
The back-to-school drive starts this Saturday with a kick-off event.
"This is going to be our first school supply drive and you're going to have two weeks to bring in the supplies," said Lasheen.
People dropping off supplies will be greeted by a special guest.
"We're going to have Miss Virginia, USA in the house, Kailee Horvath," said Lasheen.
Sheen said they are more than grateful to be in a position to help those that mean the most to the community and grateful for any way those around her can help.
"We just want to give back to the community and we want to give back to the next generation," Lasheen said. "Really want to help the kids in any type of way that they can."
For every school supply donated, participants receive a raffle ticket and raffle tickets are for the chance to win one out of four pairs of shoes.
You can find event details on their Instagram.
