Nearly 100 fourth and sixth graders from Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School spent part of a recent Saturday afternoon creating summer backpacks for students enrolled in the Horizons Atlanta summer program at the school.
The sixth graders worked one session at the King Plow Center in Atlanta filling backpacks with the fourth graders working another session that afternoon.
The backpacks will be given to rising ninth graders who attend High Point Elementary, Lake Forest Elementary, and Ridgeview Middle Schools. The backpacks were filled with at-home enrichment activities and crafts, stuffed animals and/or things they can use during the summer program, and snacks for when they are at home. The students participating in Horizons Atlanta will get backpacks on their first day of the six-week summer program, which begins in June.
Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church and Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School (HIES) formed a partnership in 1999 to bring the Horizons program to Atlanta to provide meaningful academic and recreational programs to young students whose families would otherwise not be able to afford them.
HIES Advisory Council member Stephanie Briles, who is also mom to two HIES students, organized the event held on Feb. 10. It was co-hosted by Michelle Hodgen, another HIES mom and founder of the Children Helping Children nonprofit.
Briles began supporting Horizons Atlanta during the pandemic when she learned that many children in the program would not have access to summer food programs. She regularly spearheads donation drivers for materials, equipment, and other items the program needs in the summer. That has included organizing an annual service project with Children Helping Children that began a few years ago. She asked that this year’s project benefit Horizons Atlanta at HIES students.
Briles said she loves giving back and that it makes her feel good to know she’s helped others in need.
“I am very fortunate to be…
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