Local business puts together Mother’s Day bags for moms in need | News, Sports, Jobs

Around a dozen homeschool students helped pack gift bags for mothers in need on May 8. Photo by Tom Markland

SHEPHERDSTOWN – For eight years now, Shepherdstown resident Michelle Kwiatkowski, who is the owner of Wild Rose Soap Company, has put together bags for local mothers in need on Mother’s Day.

With help from local volunteers, including many homeschool students, she put together around 60 gift bags this year, filled with things like chocolates, socks, toiletries and hair ties, to deliver to teen moms with Young Lives Martinsburg and two Martinsburg-based homeless shelters.

Not only do they do it for Mother’s Day, but they also do the same thing for Veterans Day, taking bags to homeless shelters and the Martinsburg VA Medical Center. On Thursday afternoon, the group gathered in the parish at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Shepherdstown to assemble the gift bags.

“We just wanted to give back,” Kwiatkowski said.

Kwiatkowski started the program eight years ago, looking for a way to give back to the community. In talking to workers at a nearby homeless shelter, she found out that while they receive a lot of donations around Christmas, during other times of the year, like Mother’s Day, they don’t receive much.

With the program, she’s also hoping to teach the kids involved about service, which has become a regular topic in Kwiatkowski’s homeschool lessons.

“We want them to learn how important it is to give back and that it makes you feel good,” Kwiatkowski said.

Kwiatkowski said the kids would accompany her to the shelters to help deliver the bags. She said she hoped the bags would help them enjoy the day, despite their tough situation.

“You hope just to brighten up their days,” Kwiatkowski said. “It’s pretty rough just being a teen mother or being in a shelter on Mother’s Day. We hope they know someone’s thinking about them.”