SEYMOUR, Ind. — When Amy Jackson and her husband became unemployed due to the pandemic, she decided to help others with her free time. That decision turned into a nonprofit that is now helping dozens in her community.
"If you had told me two months ago this is where we'd be sitting I would have not believed you," said Jackson, who lives in Seymour.
She started making masks, only asking for donations of fabric and elastic in return. Soon, she said, thank you notes, money, toilet paper and even groceries started to pile up as neighbors showed their appreciation for her help.
"It has just exploded," she said. "The amount of support we've gotten has been absolutely insane."
Jackson decided she wanted to do more. She established The Sunflower Studio as an official nonprofit on May 8 and started weekend food delivery for local school kids.
"We've delivered almost a thousand meals already," she said. "With everything going on, the least you should have to worry about is feeding your children."
Jackson has also been able to donate school supplies and is currently planning a fundraiser to buy new outfits for local students as they head back to school. She held a yard sale on Friday to help fund a new garage to hold all the food donations that currently fill up her home.
"I definitely want to mold. Obviously with the coronavirus we don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. We don't know what our need is going to be next month, and if I have to alter our goals for tomorrow that's perfectly fine," said Jackson.
Jackson hopes the nonprofit can help with a variety of causes. Her main goal is just to show kindness during a difficult time.
"I'm just trying to show people how I feel like they should be behaving," she said. "We should be kind to one another, we should worry about our neighbors and I don't feel like there's enough of that going on right now."
That's why she decided on the name Sunflower Studio.
"Sunflowers actually when skies are dark they turn to one another and they lift each other up and they bring strength back to one another," she said. "So I feel like the same thing could kind of apply. If we work together to lift each other up, even the skies when they're dark, we're still together and we're not alone."
Jackson is currently accepting donations to help build the garage for food donation storage and delivery. Donations can be made here. Jackson has also created a wish list on Amazon of items needed for her nonprofit.
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