WILLIAMSBURG — When 9-year-old Quinn Eppright came home from school upset, her family immediately wanted to know what was wrong.
Quinn had noticed that a classmate of hers was being bullied for not always having clean clothes to wear to school. She told her family how sad it made her that kids were being mean and she didn’t understand why.
“In talking to that particular student more, it turned out that he lived in a hotel and didn’t have access to laundry facilities,” Matt Eppright, Quinn’s father, said.
It was then that the Eppright family began to spring into action and Spark Community Empowerment was born. The group will raise funds for a future laundry token program through WJCC Schools.
“While our organization may do many things to try to help students in this town who could use some extra help, we are now and primarily focused on providing a grant to the schools to keep the laundry token program going and also to collect new socks and undergarments and new or gently used clothing through a clothing drive so that the school can put on a really cool event before school starts where they can distribute some of these clothes to people who could utilize them for a new wardrobe for the upcoming year,” Matt explained.
On May 16, the group will host its first fundraiser, a bingo night at the Williamsburg Indoor Sports Complex. The event is open to families and costs $50 per person. Light food will be served from 5:30 to 6:30 with bingo games starting shortly after.
Prizes include Busch Gardens tickets, free tuition to a WISC sports summer camp, AirPods, and a round of golf at Williamsburg National Golf Club. Preregistration for the event is requested, but a limited number of seats will be sold at the door.
The WISC playground on the second floor will also be open for kids to play during the event.
Quinn hopes that the new group can make a difference to kids just like her former classmate.
“I feel excited because I feel like this is going to help my former classmate and he’s not going to get as picked on anymore or as bullied. We will give the kids some clothes so they can be much more confident without people bullying them,” Quinn said.
A clothing fundraiser is also ongoing until May 16. Accepted donations include new and gently used outerwear and clothing. Underwear and sock donations should be new in the original packaging. Clothing drop-off locations include the WISC, Williamsburg Orthodontics and The Kensington School.
“When this topic impacted my own daughter emotionally, it really struck a nerve that when kids aren’t confident at school, it makes everything harder. It makes learning harder, it makes dealing with their classmates harder. School should feel like an exciting place to go and we want all kids to not feel nervous or feel that they lack the confidence to learn and improve themselves,” Matt said.
To donate to the organization or to purchase tickets for the bingo fundraiser, visit Spark Community Empowerment on Facebook.