by Mitchell Sasser | WeINSPIRE Contributor

“We got sixteen boxes today!”

That’s what Bethany Moultry excitedly said when the “Amazon Fairy” visited her home in Savannah, Georgia. Bethany is only six years old but has been helping the homeless people in her community with Bethany’s Happy Bags since she was five. 

“It started when I saw a homeless person, and I wanted to give them a bag of something,” Bethany said.  

The bags include everything from a first aid kit, Advil, chapstick, socks, fruit cup, drinks like Gatorade or water, granola bars, beef sticks, and packs of tuna. Warmer months include sunscreen and bug repellant, while colder months include gloves. After getting lost in the long list of items found in the happy bags, Bethany quickly reminded me:

"I forget about the other most important part — hand warmers!"

As of February 18, there have been 1,015 of Bethany’s Happy Bags given out in Savannah, Georgia. Each bag includes a handwritten card that could include pictures of flowers, hearts, birds, trees, or rainbows. They also include short messages like “you matter” and “you are blessed.”

Whether it’s bringing the heavy boxes into the house, writing cards, or talking with people on the streets, Colleen added that “[Bethany] takes ownership in all parts of this.”

“I am so proud of her,” Colleen said. “When we first started this, I just assumed it would just be something that we did here and there, you know, add on a few things to the grocery list and pass out bags when we could. But when she turned six in August, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, and she told me she wanted to help more people. That's kind of when it really started getting bigger.”

COVID-19 affected Bethany and Colleen's ability to hand out Happy Bags, but they started back up in July. Colleen has been impressed by the “sheer amount” of people they’ve been able to help through a pandemic. 

Bethany’s Happy Bags was also mentioned in New York Governor’s Coronavirus update in the “Deep Breath Moment.” He mentioned Bethany and the work she is doing with her bag distribution. 

There I was eating dinner, and my phone started blowing up, and I didn't know what was going on,” Colleen said. “That was an honor to have her name in that email.”

Moving forward, Bethany and Colleen hope to expand their outreach and figure out how they can be most helpful to their community. 

“To just watch the people that she’s helped and the lives that she's touched, it's just amazing to see what an impact anybody can have — but also what kind of impact a six-year-old can have,” Colleen said. “She's inspired people all over the country to start doing the same thing in their own communities.”

Colleen added the Matthew Reardon Center for Autism helps pack the bags and that it is a “time-consuming job,” and that Bethany’s Happy Bags could not reach as many people without their support. 

There is a chapter of Bethany’s Happy Bags in Washington State, and they hope to start one in the Hudson Valley in New York. They are also in the process of coming up with a “take-and-make” box, where a family can take a box of items home and learn about homelessness in their own community and instructions to put a bag together to give out on their own.