UVALDE, Texas – Heavy rain last Tuesday morning flooded South Texas rivers and creeks, sending floodwaters pouring into Uvalde.
“Floods really take away a child’s sense of security; I mean, they can lose everything in an instant,” Sammie Magee said.
The 19-year-old philanthropist is stepping in to help flood survivors in Uvalde, which she deems her second home even though she lives in Kansas.
“I have more Facebook friends of Uvalde than my own hometown,” Magee said.
When the devastating Robb Elementary School shooting happened, Magee was just 15 years old. A specific detail about one of the victims made her feel a connection and a desire to help.
“Amerie Joe Garza because I’ve been a Girl Scout since kindergarten and she was a junior Girl Scout,” Magee said. ”She kind of started all of this for me, and now it’s such an honor to say that I’m really close with her family.”
Four years ago, Magee started Sammie’s Toy Drive for Uvalde families every November, throwing a big family-friendly event.
Over the years, that grew into an Angel Tree Drive for Christmas and now a back-to-school drive in the summer.
While working on those projects, she watched broken-hearted as a community she loved was flooded.
“That was horrible because I know the area so well now and saying, ‘Oh, this is where I’ve gone so many times in the past, and now it is underwater,’” Magee said.
She immediately started reaching out to her contacts and collected the names of families affected.
“We have Amazon wish lists going for — it’s about 35 families now that have applied for help,” Magee said.
She said at least two families of Robb Elementary shooting victims and survivors were among those affected by the flooding.
“Their homes did flood, and they did lose some of their children’s items, unfortunately, which that hit me hard. Survivor families, some of them, their floors are buckling and all that kind of stuff,” Magee said. ”So they’re requesting help for that. One of them, they lost all their school supplies that they had just bought. So we have a bunch of school supplies on the list for them.”
The wish lists include many different items, including cleaning products, diapers, formula, clothes, bedding, toys, trauma support items such as weighted blankets, weighted stuffed animals, and fidget toys.
“We are prioritizing the neighborhoods that were directly hit by the floods that lost their homes, but if we do get those lists cleared, then we can move on to the other families too because we just want to help the community as much as we can,” Magee said.
On the Sammie’s Toy Drive website, anyone can request to help these Uvalde families with flood relief. Magee will either send links to the Amazon wish lists or allow people to donate a specific amount on the website through PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App.
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