With organizations around Suffolk chipping in to collect school supplies, fill backpacks and distribute them before kids return to school, a Saturday event in the backyard of a home at the corner of Cullodan Street and Van Buren Avenue might have seemed much like the rest.

There were bags full of new school supplies, there was a cookout, and there were tables and chairs set up for folks to stop and spend some time together. The event felt similar to many such functions organized by churches and civic and fraternal organizations around the city.

What made this one different was the fact that it was funded, staged and promoted by one couple — Steve and Patricia Watson, longtime residents of the community.

“I save one of my vacation checks just for this,” Steve Watson said as he basted racks of ribs on one of two grills that he had fired up for the event.

Saturday was the fifth time the Watsons have held their annual back-to-school event for the neighborhood. It started, he said, as a celebration for their 16 grandchildren, but soon it grew well beyond the family.

Last year, about 70 children from all around the neighborhood stopped by to pick up school supplies and grab a bite to eat. For this year’s event, the Watsons had bought school supplies to fill 100 bags, separating them according to grade level from kindergarten through seventh grade, based on fliers sent out by the schools.

He had distributed flyers around the neighborhood, and word of mouth had helped spread the news around the Planters facility and churches in the community.

“A lot of kids — their parents don’t have much,” he said. “Everybody has hard times.”

But Saturday’s event felt like much more than a chance to give away school supplies. It was also very clearly a community celebration, with tents and decorated tables, balloons and confetti.

And, of course, there was the smell of grilled food wafting through the neighborhood. Cooking on one grill or the other — or ready to be heated somewhere else on site — were nine racks of ribs, a case of fileted fish, 100 hotdogs, 100 hamburgers, sausages and all the fixin’s and sides one would expect from an end-of-summer blowout.

“Most of the kids in the neighborhood look forward to it,” Watson said, noting that kids have been asking him all summer, “Mr. Steve, are we gonna have the cookout this year?”

Putting the finishing touches on another rack of ribs, Watson was making sure the children wouldn’t be disappointed.