First Class Petty Officer Garrett Rochon, who serves aboard the USS Nimitz had an idea. He knew the school year was approaching and knew kids need backpacks and school supplies to have the best school experience.
So he got going. He wanted to collect 100 fully stocked backpacks and give them away to deserving students where he went to school. He attended Denny Middle School back in the 90's, long before the new school was built and wanted to give back.

Officer Rochon took the idea to his crew mates in the Diesel Division of the ship and asked for help. He got it.

Together, the crew collected and stocked more than double his original goal, assembling 220 backpacks for kids.

Those backpacks were made available to students during Family Welcome Night at Denny on Sept. 1 when several hundred families with incoming students came to see the school and meet their teachers.

Denny Principal Jeff Clark graciously thanked Officer Rochon and his crew for their generous efforts, as he also welcomed all the new students to the school.

Rochon said, "It's been something I've wanted to do for some time so I got a hold of Doree (Fazio-Young the much celebrated lunch lady at Denny), to set something up and we rolled with it."

He has plans to make this an annual event. "Me and my wife have already talked about it and we want to continue to do something like this." As for his crew, he's extremely proud that everyone of them chose to take part even though aside from eating chow and working together this is the only event they've participated in thus far. "It's the first, but it won't be the last."