Grief toolkits delivered to Uvalde students to help manage grief of mass shooting
SAN ANTONIO — A 1,000-mile journey isn't stopping a team of teenagers from helping Uvalde.
An Arizona nonprofit is showing how you can help make a difference no matter where or how old you are.
It's all hands-on deck to make sure this project is a success.
“When I heard about what happened in Uvalde I was truly just shaken to my core,” Milan Coraggio-Sewell with Boxed Up Project said.
It has been nearly three months since 21 people, including 19 children, were killed by a gunman in a mass shooting at Robb Elementary many living with a heavy grief.
A grief Milan Coraggio-Sewell wants to help people process.
“We have this organization, and our mission is to help grieving kids and teens,” Coraggio-Sewell said.
Coraggio-Sewell lost her best friend at age six and her grandparents a few years later. She runs Boxed Up Project, a non-profit run by teenagers.
“We create grief toolkits, toolboxes for kids and teens dealing with grief and loss,” Coraggio-Sewell said.
The idea started in 2020 after the pandemic brought up anxiety from the losses she's lived through.
Coraggio-Sewell worked with counselors to decide what items would be included in the boxes.
They split up the 200 boxes they sent to go both to a grief camp for Uvalde families and to a bereavement center. The latter will deliver them to families of children impacted by the mass shooting.
“We started tearing up to know that, oh, my gosh, we we helped even a little bit and seeing smiles on some of the kids faces. It was just oh my gosh,” Coraggio-Sewell said.
Julie Dunn with Does Moving helped take the boxes on the nearly one-thousand mile journey from Phoenix, Arizona to Uvalde, Texas.
Dunn said as someone who has lost a child this mission is personal.
"This is a really passion project for us,” Dunn said.
Especially when she sees the impact it is making.
“I was able to receive a picture of two of the Uvalde family, sibling members opening the boxes and it's a beautiful picture and they were smiling. You could just tell that these boxes just meant something to them,” Dunn said.
The Boxed Up Project is working to make and send more grief toolkits to Uvalde students.
If you would like to donate and support the project, CLICK HERE to get started. Mention in your note that you would like to help sponsor Uvalde grief toolkits.
