FRANKLIN—Pastor James Ashby of the Franklin Church of God says he wants to issue a challenge to area churches to do more charity work, create a little competition among the congregations that would, he believes, be beneficial to those who need the attention the most.

He said that on Wednesday while working as part of a crew to deliver an estimated $30,000 worth of donated new and boxed school furniture and equipment and supplies to two public schools.

That effort was part of Hope Charitable Services in Portsmouth, which has partnered with Ryder trucking, the United States Navy and Healing Waters Worship Center in Carrollton charities, to distribute donated school supplies that include workstations, chairs, bookcases, binders, tables and organizers.

On a hot and humid Wednesday, Ashby organized delivery of those goods to Windsor Middle School and

S.P. Morton Elementary School.

&uot;I deeply appreciate the dedication, commitment and sacrifice of our public school&uot; community to &uot;bring up a child,&uot; Ashby stated in a written release.

Area schools were contacted by Ashby to determine their needs, he said, and permission from the school boards was received to deliver the supplies.

The supplies are overstocked items from different companies and collected by Hope Charitable Services, loaded by volunteers of the USS Roosevelt and delivered by volunteers in a Ryder rental truck. Ashby said he hopes the efforts will stir other charity-minded groups in the area to step up their efforts to further help those in need.

Ashby said this was not the first time Hope Charities contributed a local effort. During Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the group &uot;provided 25 tractor-trailers of relief goods enabling us to serve more than 5,000 families in our community.&uot;