Harrisburg Student Creates Backpack Drive to Help Those in Need

One of the best things about the holiday season is all the feel-good stories that come out this time of the year in the Sioux Empire

A 9th-grade student in Harrisburg, South Dakota is responsible for the latest heart-warming story.

Over the past couple of weeks, Emily Huggins, a 9th-grader from Harrisburg High School helped to display what the Christmas season is all about.

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According to Dakota News Now, Huggins was the main mastermind behind organizing a backpack giveaway designed to help those who are less fortunate here in the area this holiday season.

Huggins, together with freshmen principal, Brad Seamer, and Harrisburgh High School social studies teacher Mr. Peterson, helped develop a competition between freshmen students at HHS to collect hygiene supplies and warm clothes to put in backpacks.

Over the past two weeks, the students involved really rallied around the cause. As Dakota News Now reports, the students had originally hoped to collect enough supplies to fill around 50 backpacks. They quickly found out the Christmas spirit is alive and well here in the Sioux Empire. Once the backpack drive had been completed, the students ended up collecting enough supplies to fill nearly 170 backpacks.

Huggins told Dakota News Now, “I knew I wanted to do something this winter because I knew this winter was going to be really cold, and I saw some people sitting on the street and I just knew that they needed help."

Each one of the backpacks is filled with items like; a blanket, stocking cap, gloves, socks, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and deodorant.

Huggins and her team also developed a plan to distribute what they collected. They've partnered with a program called Street Corner Revival.

Joey Clark, who runs Street Corner Revival told Dakota News Now a little bit about the program, “It’s a non-affiliated, group of different people, who want to just go out and see the betterment of our community by helping out people in need."

To help deliver these Christmas care packages, Clark will be using a bus that he normally uses to give rides and assist folks in various ways. Now he will be using that same bus to get these backpacks in the hands of the people who really need them.

Clark's goal is to have all 170 backpacks distributed by Christmas.

As for the students who helped make this generosity happen, Dakota News Now reports the freshmen team that filled the most backpacks will get a pizza party later this school year.

Source: Dakota News Now

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