NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — What started as a simple idea turned into a room full of volunteers at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church. "In just a few days it caught fire, I don't even know," said Nashville mother Kris Wylder. "It just went nuts."
After a shooting at The Covenant School claimed six lives on Monday, Wylder put out a call for help.
"So I'm a mom," she said. "So I think like many parents we dropped our kids off on Tuesday, and I heard it from a lot of people, it was just like this overwhelming feeling of 'what are we doing?'"
Inspired by her friend's daughter - a third grade student at The Covenant School - Wylder decided to collect money for comfort kits.
"So it initially started off with 'can I make her something? Can I give her something? A basket? There's got to be something like that'," she said, "and then it morphed slowly into 'let's doing something for the entire third grade class'."
The donations added up. First there was a couple hundred dollars, then a couple thousand.
By Saturday, Wylder had collected $30,000 - enough money to provide comfort kits for every student and staff member at the school.
Volunteers of all ages assembled the kits at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church on Saturday. The kits included toys, arts and crafts, books and hand-written messages.
"So we are drawing cards and we're writing some bible verses for them saying that they're loved and that God is watching over them through this hard time," said 10-year-old Camilla King.
King and her two friends were among the adults and children who wrote cards for each comfort kit.
"I just wanted to make sure that every kid and family at Covenant make sure they know that they are loved and they are not alone and that we are supporting them through all of this," added 10-year-old Grace Kitchen.
Wylder said any leftover funds will go towards the students and families of The Covenant School. "We have to rally together to create change to help these families and to just make a difference."
