Many children arrive at the Warren County Children’s Shelter with what few possessions they were able to bring tossed in a trash bag.

To help these children feel loved and valued, Mississippi Children’s Home Services hosted a statewide duffel bag drive.

When St. Aloysius English teacher Jordan Amborn learned there was no drop-off site in Vicksburg, she made arrangements for the school to serve as a destination for donations. In total, the drive yielded 326 bags in Vicksburg.

“It exploded into our lobby,” Amborn said. “Our custodian even asked me when I was going to get the bags out.”

Amborn said she counted the bags in her classroom and she was shocked to count more than 300 bags.

Warren County Children’s Shelter director Cindy McCarly said due to space constraints, only 71 of those bags stayed here in Warren County,

“Because we don’t have much storage, I told her what we really need is duffel bags,” she said. “It’s the hard suitcases and the big suitcases that’s really hard for us to store.”

McCarly said she was overwhelmed with the number of bags the community was able to collect, and she added there were some really cute bags donated.

“What I’ve seen happening throughout the years is we are never without,” she said. “People within our community are so generous.”

The bag drive helped solve an especially important need, McCarly said, one that they deal with on a nearly daily basis.

“You always see kids coming to the shelter with their things packed in garbage bags,” she said. “When you pack your stuff in garbage bags, you don’t feel real important and loved and cared for.”

McCarly said one of the main goals at the shelter is to make children feel loved.

“We believe relationships matter,” she said.

“We work really hard to make sure our kids’ needs are met, and when you begin with the basics and provide them with something for them to put their stuff in, kids automatically find worth in that.”

Amborn said she’s glad she and the rest of the community were able to help with this project.

“I’m glad Vicksburg had a drop-off spot,” she said. “I hate for our town to not have something when we have a children’s home here that could benefit from it.”

It was really a lesson for everyone at St. Al too, Amborn said.

“It’s good for our students too to realize the purpose of these bags,” she said.

“It’s not something they think about every day.”