DES MOINES, Iowa — For his birthday this year, Iowa House representative and Creative Visions founder Ako Abdul-Samad said he wanted to help out local parents get ready for the back-to-school season — with the help of his feathery friends, of course.
"I had a dream, and I said, why don't we give out gift cards for the children, because school supplies are going to be difficult for some families because of inflation," Abdul-Samad said. "That's what we're doing today. We're giving out their supplies, and we wanted to make it fun."
The rules of the game are very simple.
"Four birds. There's Smokey here, and then there's Fred right here, right? And then there's Jackson in the corner right over here. And then Baby's inside," Abdul-Samad said. "They can name one of the parrots, they can get a school supply."
Grant Cane brought her grandkids to see what all the chirp is about.
She said with record-high inflation, the help from Abdul-Samad and his team at Creative Vision couldn't come at a better time.
"It's pretty hard on some families, you know, so any little help with school supplies, it's a big help," Cane said.
Abdul-Samad said this is just a small way to help local families feel seen in the community.
"We want our children to learn, we want our children to understand that the community also cares," Abdul-Samad said. "We want to make sure that we take some of the burdens off the teachers."
Abdul-Samad and the rest of the Creative Visions team want people to stay tuned as they will be holding events where they continue to help provide resources to those in need.