Hurricane games
PANAMA CITY - The clear plastic boxes hold treasures for a rainy day: games, books, puzzles and teddy bears, and footballs for the boys.
"Boys don't usually play with teddy bears," 11-year-old Abby Dingus said.
As part of Abby's Bronze Award project for Girl Scouts, the Holy Nativity Episcopal School fifth-grader filled 16 boxes with games and toys. The boxes will be distributed to the 16 hurricane shelters in Bay County.
"She's someone, obviously, who's pretty sharp for 11," said Ken McVay, director of emergency services for the Central Panhandle Chapter of the American Red Cross.
McVay was surprised earlier this week when the girl and her mother dropped off the 16 kits at his Panama City office. The kits, he said, will come in handy when children find themselves bored in a shelter come hurricane season, which starts June 1.
"It's kind of a stressful time; kids are sitting on the floor. It's not like they have the comforts of home," McVay said. "To give them something to put them back in their comfort zone is a good idea."
This is not the first experience the fifth-grader has had battling gloom with the cute-and-cuddlies. Following Hurricane Katrina, Abby watched news coverage of the event and began to sympathize with victims corralled into the Superdome in New Orleans. She was particularly concerned about the children.
"She said, ‘Mom, these kids have nothing,'" said Nancy Dingus, Abby's mother. "I said, ‘What are you gonna do about it?'"
What Abby did was spark a teddy bear assembly line at her school. Soon, the stuffed animals were making their way to children affected by Hurricane Katrina.
"She's a tender heart," Nancy Dingus said of her daughter. "She likes to help people."
Abby's mother tells a story about one specific boy. Displaced by Hurricane Katrina and staying at a shelter, the boy received one of the teddy bears. The boy's mother later relayed her thanks: "She said, ‘That's the first time my child had smiled.'"
Along with collecting the goods to fill her 16 kits, Abby also researched hurricanes. Once she got started, her mother said, she realized the amount of research could have constituted bigger badge-earning potential; this could have been her silver, or maybe gold award project.
"That just means the Gold Award will be bigger and better," Abby said.