WINDER, Ga. — A nonprofit in Winder is working to help Apalachee High students as they return to the classroom following the tragic shooting that killed two teachers and two students and injured nine others on Sept. 4.
Adventure Bags said it helps kids in crisis by working with agencies across the state to donate backpacks. The nonprofit reported since 2011, it has served more than 54,000 kids in Georgia.
The organization fills backpacks with hygiene and comfort items for kids of all ages across the state. However, when the "crisis hit home," as the executive director put it, those with Adventure Bags knew they had to help.
"I woke up very heavy-hearted, and I felt like...we needed to do more," Adventure Bags Executive Director Misty Manus said. "And what better way than to do what we already do and that's to provide adventure bags to these kids that are returning back to Apalachee High School."
Manus, whose older kids graduated from Apalachee High School, said the organization is working to collect items to fill bags with comfort items for the students before their first day.
"I truly hope that it will make a difference," Manus said. "I truly hope that it will offer them the comfort that they need to endure what they're going through and help them put one foot in front of the other."
Manus said the bags will be filled with a myriad of items, including a stuffed animal, a blanket, a journal and a coloring book.
"And then a flashlight, along with a card, just to remind them that someone in their community cares about them and is thinking about them," Manus said.
The flashlight is a staple in the backpacks Adventure Bags gives away. Manus said it started with the founder, Debbie Gori, asking a child if he wanted anything else in his backpack.
"He didn't say a cell phone, he didn't say a tablet. He said he would like a flashlight because he gets scared of the dark, and so now all of our kids, ages five and up, get a flashlight," Manus said. "And I felt that it was appropriate that in this dark moment in our community and in these kids' lives that we need to offer them some light, and how fitting would it be to just give them that flashlight?"
Adventure Bags is packing up the 2,000 bags on Friday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. To learn more about the initiative and to get involved, click here.