Local woman helps ‘Children of the Plains’

HAMILTON, Ohio - There are many tiny faces in Pine Ridge—an Indian reservation in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and Amber Buriff loves every one of their smiles.

"It's exciting and heartbreaking. I mean there's just a whole bunch of different emotions that go through you when you go out there and see the kids,” said Buriff, Backpacks for Pine Ridge organizer.

“The kids are great. They're just awesome. They love being hugged on and loved on and just so anxious for any kind of attention."

The group feeds the kids a meal every day that they are there, play games, have water gun fights, watermelon-eating contests and “all kinds of craziness to just let the kids play and have fun.”

Situated two hours from Rapid City, it's a mix of rolling plains and Bad Lands.

"When you're out there the place is just so desolate. It is at least a two-hour drive from anywhere. Just out in the middle of nowhere, hidden away."

Buriff organizes a group every summer to travel to the Lakota Sioux reservation.

They take backpacks full of school supplies to the children of Pine Ridge.

"It changes you. You think you're going there to help them and it really, it really changes you and helps you far more than anything that we do for them," said Buriff.

"We started out with 150 backpacks eight years ago and it's kind of grown since then. This year we took out 820. Next year we have enough for 900."

They have so many to pack; she turned her son's bedroom into her 'backpack' room.

"They get notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, crayons, glue, rulers, just all the basic school supplies that they'll need."

"It's like Christmas. They just, they get so excited and when we get down toward the end, they start to get nervous, afraid that there's not enough for them to have one. So we have to tell them, 'it's OK, we have enough.'"

Every year, the organization raises money through donations and a 5/10K run 'Trax for Backpacks'.

This year, their logo was designed by Pine Ridge children, using the tools they received in their school backpacks last year.

For more information about Trax for Backpacks, click here .