After the destruction of her home on Dec. 6, support for junior Maegan Hammill began with a small crowd gathered in Super Target, chatting away about clothing, makeup and school supplies to buy. Consisting of roughly seven girls and their parents, they conversed about the material items a teenage girl might need when she has nothing left at all.
Around 4:00 p.m. on Dec. 6, Hammill and her family lost their home to a fire. The fire began by an electrical outlet multiplier plug without a power surge protector. Unfortunately, the fire did not activate the fire alarms until it spread to the attic.
Hammill practices and competes in Legacy’s color guard, and her fellow members, or sisters as the color guard refers to each other, would not let her go astray. Senior and color guard captain Blair Ikeler, and the mothers of the color guard girls, organized a get-together with other members to meet at Target on Sunday, Dec. 8 to help Hammill get back on her feet by buying her everything she needed. Once gathered, the group split up. The color guard girls went to shop with Hammill; the color guard parents stayed to accept donations from those who came to give money.
“Who’s ready to go on a shopping spree?” Ikeler exclaimed as the girls took off. First, the group decided to get Hammill makeup.
Next, they moved on to hair products. Here the girls helped Hammill pick out shampoos, brushes and hair ties. Across the aisle they found soaps and toothpastes, as well as a toothbrush to go with it. As the girls left the toiletries section, they all stumbled upon the candy aisle. Immediately, the mother of junior Taylor Green, Amy Green, had to say, “No ladies, we’re looking for necessities.”
They looked at slippers for Hammill’s cold feet, Converse for her stylish looks and riding boots “just because they’re cute,” Ikeler said. After shoe shopping, the girls headed towards pajamas and socks. “Remember guys, I have pajamas,” Hammill said with a laugh. “I ran out of the house into the cold with them.”
“Don’t forget the school supplies,” senior Laura Haslam said as the color guard team walked out of the socks aisle and towards the clothes. “We should do clothes last, that’ll take the longest.” With that, the team headed to the school supply section and picked out binders with polka dots, folders with animals, spirals made of various colors, writing utensils and the ever so vacant and difficult to find, binder dividers.
Finally, after everything else was taken care of, the girls bounded toward clothing. Here, it appeared as though Hammill already seemed exhausted and taken aback by the rigorous shopping agenda. As the girls paraded around the clothing aisle, other parents, including Hanna Castillo, sought after a way Target could help Hammill through charity.
Mother of band member and senior Jake Sutton, Rayanna Sutton Hoeft, spoke to the junior manager of Target about the Target’s Adopt-a-Family for the holidays policy, the day before the shopping spree. The junior manager did not know much information about the policy, but Castillo heard about the same policy as well and planned to go check it out. Castillo made it all the way up to the upper manager of Mansfield Super Target and gathered more information. According to upper management, Phillip, discussed with Hoeft and Castillo about the involvement they would do to help the family.
Target’s Adopt-a-Family, which began this year, helps families who do not have the necessary vitals to have a Christmas. Originally, Mansfield Super Target chose to use a previous employee for the family that would get adopted, but decided to do the Hammill family instead.
“What better place to find a someone than in our own backyard,” Phillip said.
He told Hoeft to send the items Hammill and her family could not gather on Dec. 8 in an email to him, and Target would take care of the rest. Phillip handed Hoeft his business card and explained that the family could email him with clothing sizes, food necessities, toiletry basics, etc. With that, the man left and Hoeft ran to go explain it all to young Hammill. When Hammill heard, she was even more overwhelmed than before, either with gratitude or with the gravity of the whole situation, the answer remains unknown.
Although the shopping spree seemed to go successfully, the Hammill family still had things to take care of. As of right now they’re staying with friends and hope to move into a home of their own as soon as possible. The color guard team created a website for donations for the Hammill family and ask for anything that anyone can give. The website name, Help the Hammill Family, charitably gives money to the family. On Facebook, the page is known as Let’s Help the Hammill Family.
The color guard from Mansfield High School and students from Lake Ridge High School donated gift baskets and money to Maegan. As of Jan. 9, 2014, the Hammill family currently lives in an apartment in Mansfield near Lake Ridge High School. The band and color guard at Legacy, along with those from other schools, succeeded in helping the family with their immediate needs, giving them a chance to get back on their feet.
