Broken Arrow Girl Helping Kids In Tornado Ravaged Joplin

Dan Bewley, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Broken Arrow girl is helping kids in Joplin get a fresh start for the upcoming school year.

Mackynzie Wolfe-Bell is trying to collect a truckload of notebooks, pens, paper, you name it.

The images are haunting. Surveillance video inside a Joplin school shows the moment that an EF-5 tornado ripped through the city.

Of all the devastation, of all the loss Joplin Public Schools was one of the hardest hit. Ten buildings destroyed, 260 teachers lost their classrooms and supplies, and more than half of the student body lived inside the red zone, the area where the tornado hit.

Broken Arrow's Mackynzie Wolfe-Bell joined her mom and dad to help clean up Joplin. Mackynzie loves school and decided she had to do something help get Joplin students ready for the school year.

"They lost their schools and their houses and stuff and I figured this is one thing less to worry about," she said.

Mackynzie has been gathering school supplies...from Crayolas to backpacks to notebook paper. If it can help a teacher or student Mackynzie wants it.

"The first day of school I have all my new supplies and I feel brand new, so I want them to feel brand new," Mackynzie said.

Her mom isn't surprised by Mackynzie's drive, knowing how much she looks forward to the first day of school.

"She's very motivated and every time she sees a relative she's, like...hug-kiss, 'Do you have any school supplies for me?'" laughed Tonya Wolfe, Mackynzie's mom.

The goal is to get enough supplies to help at least 40 kids. No matter what the total, her mom says Mackynzie's proof that anyone can provide a helping hand can.

"You don't have to be big to help, you can help in your own way and there's always going to be a way that you can help. Mackynzie was just good at being able to pick out something that she could do," she said.

Mackynzie will be collecting donations through this Thursday, you can drop off school supplies at the Arby's corporate office at 49th and Yale in Tulsa and American Airlines employees can do the same at the plant there.