Children receiving gifts through a car window wasn’t exactly how Kaimet Haile pictured her first Shop with a Bulldawg event. However, with COVID-19 restrictions still looming her freshman year at the University of Georgia, the student-run nonprofit was forced to get creative in order to deliver a successful day to Athens-Clarke County children.
After witnessing how much Shop with a Bulldawg, known as SWAB, impacted these kids, Haile knew she wanted to be a part of helping the organization grow. Now, Haile, a senior majoring in economics and cognitive sciences, is executive director of SWAB, which provides children the opportunity to spend a day shopping with two UGA students and enjoying fun activities.
The group partners each holiday season with the Clarke County School District to plan an event day where UGA students take children shopping with a budget of $120 per child.
About 800 UGA students participated in 2023, meaning its volunteers shopped with about 400 children. The number for 2024 has grown to 1,000 UGA students, allowing 500 children to shop for items they want or need.
“I feel like as students, sometimes we take advantage of (UGA), and I think that (SWAB) makes life way more real,” Haile said. “I relate to it a lot more based off of where I came from.”
Credit: Rachel Sandstrom
Credit: Rachel Sandstrom
Before UGA, Haile ran Amplexio Tutoring in her hometown of Clarkston, referred to as the “Ellis Island of the South,” where many people immigrated to, including her father from the African country of Eritrea. The organization provided tutoring to students who struggled in school due to a lack of resources.
Haile uses these personal experiences as motivation to put on the best event day possible for the kids.
Donna Elder, executive director of federal programs for the Clarke County School District, said her favorite part of SWAB is witnessing the kids get paired up with their UGA mentors. She enjoys seeing relationships form so quickly between kid and mentor because once they’re paired up, “they’re going to be lifelong buddies,” Elder said.
On event day, which was held earlier this month, children filled up their carts at Walmart with all kinds of toys like Lego, race cars and stuffed animals. Once they were done shopping, each child received a backpack of school supplies. The children then got to wrap their gifts, grab a picture with UGA’s costumed mascot, Hairy Dawg, and meet UGA football players like CJ Allen.
“I think my favorite part is seeing the impact … how much it is worth doing, even though sometimes you kind of forget it when you’re planning it,” Haile said.
As executive director, Haile acts as “the firefighter,” in which she supports each position in the organization. For instance, SWAB hosts a yearly donation drive of items to use on event day. This year, it also hosted a school supplies drive, which at first was not gaining much traction. Haile met with her executive board and hashed out a plan that ultimately turned it into a successful event in which they took in around 1,600 donations, exceeding their goal of 1,000. This enabled them to provide three school supply items per child on event day.
Looking back on when the nonprofit started in 2009, Haile said it is “insane” to not just see how much it has grown but to see the amount of “heart and care” that has carried SWAB through the past 15 years. SWAB broadens the way students think about their university in relation to the Athens community and “pops the bubble we live in within UGA,” she said.
“Don’t forget to give back to where you live and to the people around you,” Haile said. “That’s a huge thing that I’m grateful I got to learn from an early age, and it’s something I’ll carry with me wherever I move to in life.”
HOW TO HELP
For information on volunteering with Shop with a Bulldawg, contact executivedirector@swabuga.org. If you are a current UGA student, applications to be a part of SWAB’s list of internal groups have closed for this year, but will open back up starting from late January to March 2025. You can apply on SWAB’s website at swabuga.org/get-involved.
To donate to SWAB, go to gagives.org/organization/Swab-2024.
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