Hometown Holiday Helpers recipients help kids post-pandemic

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - The disruption of schools due to the pandemic means extra help for students is more important than ever.

That’s where our latest Hometown Holiday Helpers winners step in to take on the challenge.

Meet Kia Donner and her husband Marcus, who run Agape Creations from their church basement. Their 4-year-old son is Genesis. Together they run a youth outreach program. Kia feels this is the time for extra care.

“I do. With everything that is going on in our community here in the Roanoke Valley and just in general, in school and in testing, and the students not feeling adequate because of that COVID time, just having that space and that opportunity to let go and be free and to express themselves.”

In addition to food and fellowship, tutoring is key. So the big question, who helps with the math?

“That’s me, I’m the math person,” says Marcus. “So anything math, even English. Kia, she can write and stuff but when it comes down to math, division, fractions and rounding, that’s me.”

And there is so much more. Agape Creations feeds and entertains, which brings us to Kia’s love of the pumpkin patch.

“We did a fall festival for the kids in the community and we had a bouncy house and one of the special things me and my husband, we do with our son, is go through the pumpkin patch every year with our son and so this year we decided to bring the pumpkin patch to kids.

So as you pass their ministry on Cove Road in Roanoke, just know something special is happening inside this hometown holiday season.

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