Twins donate birthday haul
Published 7:17 pm Saturday, June 14, 2014
Suffolk twins Trae Denise and Stenette Byrd IV were showered with gifts for their seventh birthday.
Guests at the kids’ May 31 birthday party knew just what to bring, since both are big into sports.
Footballs, soccer balls, baseball bats, numerous hula-hoops, tennis racquets — the sporting goods piled up nearly as high as the children.
Trae and Stenette IV, realizing they’re more fortunate than a lot of other kids, chose to give their haul to students at their school, Northern Shores Elementary School, and to members of the Suffolk unit of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeastern Virginia.
“We basically had a talk with our children about several things,” said the children’s mother, Tonya Byrd, an engineer at the Surry Power Station.
Their dad is Stenette Byrd III, principal at King’s Fork High School.
“One, they have way too much stuff,” Tonya Byrd said. “The other part, we are trying to teach them about giving back.”
Their parents wanted to show Trae and Stenette IV “that when you have as much as we do, it’s good to extend that to other people,” she explained.
Most of the Byrd family is into sports, according to Tonya Byrd: Stenette Byrd III was “an avid athlete in high school — me, not so much.”
Her husband has coached her son’s soccer team for the past six seasons, she said, and will be coaching Trae’s team this fall. Between them, she said, the twins have been into soccer, golf, basketball, gymnastics, swimming and cheering.
Tonya Byrd is proud of her kids: “Not only do they excel in sports, they are great students and have been recognized in school for their academic achievement.”
When the twins elected to have a sports-themed birthday party, Tonya Byrd said, she and her husband explained to them that they could ask guests to bring sporting equipment that could be donated to “children not as fortunate.”
“They really liked it,” she said. “We started talking about different places we could give it to.”
They decided upon their school, via physical education teacher Alan Lowe, and the Boys and Girls Club.
When they delivered a batch of the donated gear to Northern Shores, a boy remarked to Stenette IV about how much they got for their birthday, Tonya Byrd said.
The 7-year-old said, “No, it’s not for me; it’s for you,” she said. “I was about to cry.”