A ‘bigger’ bookbag drive

Basketball legend and local hero Mikayla Boykin made her way home to Sampson County this past weekend to give back to her home community with the return of her school drive.

The event, hosted as part of her non-profit It’s Bigger Than Me, was her second annual Back 2 School Drive. Boykin started the drive as a way to not only gift bookbags full of school supplies for families who may be in need, but also as a way to bring the community she loves together for a day of fun before school begins.

Rain ruined much of the outside festivities planned for the day, but did little to stop the event from having a massive turnout that saw hundreds of bookbags distributed.

“It was an amazing event; we ended up having close to 500 bookbags and we had about 12 to 15 vendors, which was super cool,” Boykin said. “The reason I wanted to have vendors come out was to uplift them and give them the opportunity for people to come and and see what they’re about, things like that. So that was pretty cool. And then it rained.

“It did rain on us, but that didn’t stop the show,” she continued. “We ended up going into the Bellamy Center, and just had to rearrange some stuff. I had planned for it to rain, just in case, so we moved down there and it was still a great event. I had to hit the road to Charlotte literally right after it ended, so I have to count how many bookbags we have left, but I’m pretty sure we gave out over 400.”

Rows upon rows of bookbags completely covered the park benches at Royal Lane. As her non-profits name suggests, Boykin said the outreach was bigger than her.

“It was donations; I mean, a lot of people donated,” Boykin said. “I also raised money from the basketball camp I host and all the proceeds made from the concession stand, and all that good stuff, went to the school drive, and of course, out of my pocket. So it was just pulling from different people wanting to support it. There was so many people that literally wanted to support and help us make an impact in the City of Clinton and surrounding areas. So it all come together from just kind of going out in the community and talking to people, the rest was all them being invested and wanting to help.”

Giving back is a huge part of Boykin’s life and she said she felt she could do more beyond just her basketball camp to help the community.

“The name of my organization is It’s Bigger Than Me, and I named it that because, like I said, no matter where I go in life, it’s always bigger than me,” she said. “It’s bigger than the accolades. For me it’s the impact. It’s about how many lives can I impact, how many can I touch or change? Whether that’s one or 500 lives, it’s all about just being impactful. This all came from that.”

“So I started off with a basketball camp, then I thought: Why not use the basketball camp, and on the backside, do a school drive right after?” Boykin continued. “We did both of those hand-in-hand last year, which was super cool. Then this year, I did the basketball camp in July, and that was in partnership with the Hornets hoops, which was also super cool, and then we did the Back 2 School Drive. So it started just kind of piggybacking off of that basketball camp, but it’s something that I want to continue going even after I’m gone.”

Keeping with that theme of all this being bigger than Boykin, there were many that came out to the event to help her organize it. They are people who Boykin holds close to her heart, who push her to want to give back to her community, no matter where she goes.

“I just have to say thank you; I think my biggest thing is, no matter where I go in life, I always want to give back to my community,” she said. “So being able to pull the community together, that’s something that I hold close to my heart, along with being able to give. There’s a lot of kids who aren’t fortunate enough to be able to even afford to get bookbags or supplies at the beginning of the school year, so I want to help them.”

“My whole family being educators, it really is close to home and for my family to be a part of it and help, it means a lot,” Boykin continued. “I‘ve definitely got to give a lot of credit to to my cousin, Tiffany Pitts. She definitely held it down. Because I’m up here in Charlotte, she was handling so much stuff, which is super cool. So to be able to see her smiling and happy, means so much. She put a lot of work into it while raising all of her kids too. This has been like a six-month ongoing process as well, so it was good to see things come together.”

The Back 2 School Drive is an event Boykin hopes to see happen for years to come. In her eyes, growing it bigger and bigger was never the focus.

“For me, I don’t even think I look at it in that perspective. I know over time it’s going to grow and get bigger and it’s going to be better,” she said. “But for me, it’s moreso the idea of this being a way for us to bring the community together — to be one and be whole. It’s also about the kids, so being able to provide different things, like the gaming truck and bouncy houses, and all the games we had being played, that’s what’s important. I want kids to be with each other and feel like being kids again.”

“I feel like electronics and stuff are taking over nowadays so the event is meant to help serve others, but at the same time, bring the kids and families together,” Boykin added. “I was joking with somebody recently, actually, and I was like, man, this is going to end up turning into a festival with how many people pulled up and getting that many to show. It’s not even intentional so that was pretty cool.”