TIME’s Kid of the Year Is Helping First Responders Comfort Children in Crisis

“We reached out to civic centers—the Moose Lodge, the Fraternal Order of the Police, churches—who donated money toward purchasing the bag and the stuff that goes in it,” says JT. “Nothing in the bag is expensive. Everything is from the Dollar Tree or Dollar General. They’re not $100 headsets. They’re $5 headsets.”

Before long, the Manns’ garage was piled high with the makings for dozens of emergency go bags. Before the work began, much of Ledger’s free time was spent doing homework, practicing jujitsu, and playing organized football—and it still is. But he now spends his remaining time in the garage, packing up the bags in a careful, just-so way. Each item is accounted for so every bag is complete, all carefully arranged so that nothing is hidden from view.

“He’s very particular about how the bag has to be made,” says JT. “He has an assembly line and everything has to be done perfectly.”

The more bags the family assembled, the more widely the Manns distributed them, and they took care to position them strategically. Dinwiddie County covers 286 sq. mi., so the Manns initially distributed bags in central locations before expanding outward to ensure no area was overlooked. The various hospitals, EMS teams, police departments, and fire departments that had bags on hand showed a ready willingness to share the wealth with other responders who didn’t.