Every year, Next Level Church in Riverview gives back to local schools and teachers through various initiatives. This year, the church partnered with Gibsonton Elementary School to gather much-needed school supplies and backpacks for students.
Walter Robbins, executive assistant at Next Level Church, explained that the church became aware of this huge need in the community and immediately got to work to meet those needs. The church set a goal to donate 120 backpacks full of supplies, such as binders, crayons, notebooks and more.
“Every year, we partner with a local school to help serve them however we can,” said Robbins. “This year, we came across a post online from Gibsonton Elementary School letting the community know of their need for school supplies. We quickly organized our church to do something about it, and backpacks with school supplies started coming in each week for this initiative.”
The church collected the supplies for four weeks before delivering them at the beginning of the school year to Gibsonton Elementary. As the costs of goods continue to climb, the extra help for families that may be struggling was a blessing to the staff, students and families.
“We want to be a church that is known in our community for being loving, relevant and life-giving,” said Robbins. “Meeting local needs such as high demand for school supplies is just one way we can show the community our love for them.”
The church’s next goal is to raise nonperishable food items for the ECHO organization at its annual Stuff-A-Truck event this Thanksgiving season. ECHO was founded in 1987 and its mission is to assist the residents of Hillsborough County in crisis with food, clothing, programs and resources.
Next Level Church was founded in 2008 in Dover, New Hampshire and has several campuses, including the Riverview location, and serves the local community and surrounding areas of Hillsborough County. It was named among the fastest-growing churches in America by Outreach magazine.
The congregation meets every Sunday at 10 a.m. at 10650 County Rd. 672 in Riverview. For more information, visit www.nextlevel.church.
