BY KARISSA MILLER

Every student at N.B. Mills Elementary School received backpack stocked with school supplies for the new school year thanks to Costco’s Backpack Program.

Mooresville Costco manager Rose Visco Lane helped facilitate the donation of 379 backpacks — one for every student at the Statesville school.

Costco’s backpack giveaway is one of the retailer’s charitable outreach programs to support children in the community and help relieve stress on their families.

The backpacks were delivered to N.B. Mills last week and handed out to students on two different days.

“The kids were super excited to get their bookbag,” N.B. Mills Principal Jonathan Nicastro said.

Over the summer Costco emailed Nicastro and let him know that they would like to help the school.

“I was like ‘Absolutely, yes!’ ” Nicastro said. “We had planned to hand them out at our open house, but there was a delay in shipping.”

“It actually worked out well because we had just received student workbooks with online curriculum and we put them in the bags. It was perfect timing,” he added.

The principal said that the new backpacks came with school supplies and will be a big relief for students, who attend class in-person and virtually.

“We are grateful that Costco thought of partnering with our school,” he said.