Students in Clay and Pickett Counties among 15,000 students across the state to receive new backpacks from Tennessee First Lady Maria LeeLee said the Tennessee Serves initiative has distributed more than 47,000 backpacks to students in rural areas since 2021. Lee picked the 11 economically distressed counties in the state for this year’s distribution. “Providing backpacks to students in rural Tennessee over the past six years has been a joy and pleasure,” Lee said. Lee said the backpack donation was coordinated through the Tennessee Serves July monthly challenge. Lee said the effort represents the final partnership between the initiative and Family Resource Centers to provide backpacks specifically to the state’s economically distressed counties.