Emily Baxter is proud to be the daughter of a United States Army soldier. It is evident upon meeting her that she loves her father, who is currently serving overseas in Afghanistan.
“Not a lot of people are like, ‘hey, I am an army brat,’” Baxter, a sophomore majoring in early childhood development and special education, said. “But I wear it on my sleeve.”
It is no surprise that, when Baxter’s father asked her to send some school supplies over for the children in Afghanistan, she immediately set to work organizing and gathering supplies with her friends.
Baxter said her father and his battalion work in an area where there are schools. He gets to interact and see the kids on a regular basis, she said.
“He noticed that they don’t have the basics,” Baxter said. “They don’t have paper. They don’t have pencils. They don’t have pens. He asked me if me and my friends wouldn’t mind sending some stuff over, and he said he would send me the address.”
Baxter immediately began thinking about the project, and recruited her friends to help. What started off as only Baxter and a couple of friends gathering supplies for her father sparked a much larger project, and resulted in the creation of an organization, Heart of School Supplies.
“So that is really how it got started, by him just asking if we could send things,” Baxter said. “And I really just started to think why just my friends, why not have others included as well? I know there are a lot more people on this campus with military backgrounds as well. My gears started turning, and I was like, we are going to do more than this.”
Baxter wanted to keep the organization military-based and decided to go through Veterans Affairs at the University. She emailed them that night and has received a lot of support there, but Baxter’s biggest supporters and partners in Heart of School Supplies may be her friends who she first told her idea to, such as Estela Ceron.
“It was around midnight, and she said she got a call from her dad and was just like, ‘I have this idea,’” Ceron, a sophomore majoring in business, said. “And so we started putting something together, and then we were like, ‘hey, let’s just do it big instead of small.’ I mean, these troops do so much for us, and here they are still thinking about others. Anything we can do to help them we are excited about.”
The next day, Brittany Sutton was on board with Baxter and Ceron, too.
“I was just like, ‘sure, why not,’” Sutton, a sophomore majoring in nursing, said. “I mean, it would be a good thing for me to start. I got her back. It’s true though, we stick together and we are going to help Emily, help her dad, help the troops and help the other kids.”
Even if Heart of School Supplies does not become a University organization, Baxter said she would be satisfied with what they are doing.
“If it doesn’t grown into what I call a ‘UA name-brand organization’ then it will still be the three of us, and maybe more people spreading the word about what we are doing and asking for donations,” she said. “And even if we have to send them on our own, I mean, we did all this in the span of three weeks to a month.”
For Baxter, Ceron and Sutton it is enough to know they are helping others, even if it is mostly behind the scenes.
“My dad just wants to get these kids on track,” Baxter said. “They are in school and he talks to them about what is going on state-wise. Basically, the kids are sitting in school trying to absorb everything and it’s like, here we are taking notes and finding pencils on the street. We want to be the people behind the curtain who are helping the soldiers help the community.”
Heart of School Supplies has a drop-off location in B.B. Comer at the Veteran and Military Affairs office. They will be taking all school supplies except retractable pens and scissors, although safety scissors are acceptable. All supplies must be generic and cannot have any UA insignia. The Community of Veterans Affairs has given full support to Heart of School Supplies and they will pay for shipping cost.
