Humboldt Middle School students create Brave Bags for hospitalized kids

HUMBOLDT, Iowa — The Humboldt community is coming together for kids in the hospital, and it all starts in a seventh-grade civics class at the middle school.

Katie Phillips, a social studies teacher at Humboldt Middle School, started Brave Bags as a class project in 2017.

“I really wanted to do a service project with my students that would teach them some valuable life lessons. And the Humboldt community really showed up and donated a lot, so the year after that I decided to make it a nonprofit and run with it,” said Phillips.

For six years, her class created care packages to donate to kids in the hospital. Each bag was packed by age and gender, and any child between ages 3 and 16 could receive one.

Phillips said, “It’s neat to have them realize that there’s other people to care about and to do something positive so they can make a difference.”

And the students are learning from the project.

“I’m so happy that I’m a part of this. It makes me feel like I’m doing a good job, like I’m special to put a smile on someone’s face. Especially someone who’s going through something much harder than me,” said Lexi, a student in Ms. Phillips’ class.

The project takes four months to complete. They start with marketing and then gathering donations. After that, they package the bags and finally deliver them.

“I love this class, it’s like my favorite one,” said Kesley, a seventh grader, “It’s just a fun thing that we get to do and it’s cool to know that all of the kids get to have all this fun stuff even when they’re sick and don’t feel good.”

So far, over 1,000 Brave Bags have been distributed to hospitals throughout the state.

“I have had seniors come back to me and say this was one of the best things they remember about school, so that’s pretty awesome for me as a teacher,” said Phillips.

Right now, the class is currently in the second stage of the project, where they’re collecting donations. So far, the community helped raise over $4,000.

Phillips said, “The whole endgame to this is to make a difference to those kids, so whether it’s 50 kids or we can get 1,000 kids, that’s the goal.”

They are accepting donations for this year’s Brave Bags until March 31st. Donations can be in the form of supplies or money. A list of needed supplies can be found on this Facebook post .

Donations can also be dropped off at Humboldt Middle School and there is a Venmo for charitable contributions — for more information, contact bravebags2017@gmail.com .

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