The students didn’t have to, but they felt called to help.

Last week, students from Escambia Academy and Escambia County High School gathered donations for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, which hit the coast of Texas and Louisiana.

Upon arriving at city hall, where the donations were being collected and were to be sent off, I couldn’t help but get an overwhelming feeling of joy.

Joy may not be the best word to use, but it’s the best one I know of to describe what was happening in front of my eyes.

In the front lobby of city hall, the entire right side was taken up by donations including diapers, cleaning supplies and toilet paper, to name a few. Counting the donations and putting them in boxes was Marsha Hotstettler.

With a smile on her face, Hotstettler continued her work uninterrupted.

When the students from EA arrived, they brought plenty of water. I mean at least 18 cases were donated by Winn-Dixie, and if memory serves, the other cases were purchased from donations to the school by businesses.

As one student noted, they cleaned the store out of water.

The next day, students from ECHS donated their items they collected from the school.

Again, I felt a sense of joy.

From the outpouring of the Atmore community to that of the rest of the country, it’s amazing what we do for our fellow man and woman.

It’s going to take a long time for Houston to get back to where it was. In fact, it probably won’t be the same, ever.

What made the experience last week joyful for me was that I had not had a good day leading up to taking those pictures.

Going to city hall, I wasn’t really thinking about the assignment. Instead, thoughts of what I needed to get done at work filled my brain and thoughts.

That went away when I realized I was in the midst of a group of students willing to give back to complete strangers they’ll likely never meet.

It warmed my hard heart at the time, and it was sorely needed.

Thanks for giving me some joy.