From left Third graders Kaylin Sego, Hailey Smith, Shayne Henderson and Kylan Solodow take part in the annual Blessing Bag event Tuesday at Creekside Elementary School. The bags, full of essential supplies, are given to youth in need.
ANDY BELL-BALTACI | DAILY JOURNAL
Sharing love on Valentine’s Day takes on a larger meaning each year at Creekside Elementary School.
It did again Tuesday, when the school’s 500 students each carefully packed a bag of necessities, such as travel-size lotion, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lip balm, tissues, deodorant, snacks and bottles of water as part of the Blessing Bag event. The bags also contained cards students filled with messages, such as “you are special,” “you are loved” and “you got this.”
In the weeks leading up to the event, donated items poured in from parents and local businesses.
The bags will go to youth facing economic hardship and be distributed by local organizations such as KIC-IT, ASSIST Indiana and Grace United Methodist Church. School employees will also work to identify children within Franklin Community School Corporation who might benefit from the bags, said Alysha Sherry, Creekside’s physical education teacher who started the initiative at the school.
“My daughter started doing it with her youth group at church. It’s an easy way to get all children involved because it’s an assembly line bagging items,” Sherry said. “The youngest kids could handle it and it’s something for the community to donate to.”
Creekside Elementary School is in its fifth year of distributing the bags, with different grade levels filtering into the gymnasium at different times, filing into a line and passing by tables, filling bags with supplies and hand-written cards, and dropping their bags into a collection box.
The Blessing Bag program helps students give back and express empathy, Creekside third grader Roxie Davis said.
“I think it helps because they might not have toothpaste and toothbrushes. I love that they can have that,” Davis said. “I wrote ‘you got this’ (on the card) because I know life can be hard and when they get this stuff, I know they can do it.”
Sebastian Wolfe, also a third grader, wrote ‘you are loved’ on his card.
The program helps provide supplies to people who might face financial hardship trying to pay for it themselves, Wolfe said.
With each grade level participating, this year marks the first year that everyone in the school, from kindergarten through fourth grade, has taken part in the Blessing Bag program each year they’ve been at the school. Third grader Kylee Lopo said he enjoys helping others.
“It’s giving back to people in need,” Lopo said. “They can eat more and have food and water and be clean.”
Students have taken inspiration from the event and chosen to give back outside of school. Some of them are volunteering with ASSIST Indiana, Sherry said.
The organization serves survivors of sexual, domestic and physical violence through prevention and education efforts, according to ASSIST’s website.
“(Blessing Bag) inspired some kids to think about ‘how can I volunteer in the community and help others on a larger scale,” Sherry said.
The ultimate goal of the Blessing Bag program is to help children become model citizens and help make the lives of people around them better, she said.
“It means everything to me,” Sherry said. “My greatest goal in life, for not only my own kids, but those I teach is for them to become good humans who are kind and have empathy for others. School is much more than reading and writing. It’s about being a good person and having good character.”
