The response to Morgan’s Dixie Wish has been, in a word, overwhelming, according to Stacie Ortiz.

Morgan’s Dixie Wish were charms, designed with the Dixie Crystals Sugar logo, for Morgan Seckinger to sell to raise funds for Imperial Sugar refinery explosion victims. Her father Paul was one of those hurt in the Feb. 7 blast, and he is continuing to recover at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Augusta’s Doctors Hospital.

With help from the Jibbitz Corporation, makers of charms to place on Crocs footwear, Seckinger, a fourth-grader at Ebenezer Elementary School, and Ortiz, her teacher, sold the charms last Saturday. They were gone — 1,000 of them — in a few minutes.

“It was really good,” Ortiz said of the sales.

The sale of the charms raised $5,400 and accompanying T-shirt sales brought in another $400.

And the word of the charms has spread, not just across the Coastal Empire and Georgia, but around the nation.

“I didn’t realize (the impact of the story),” Ortiz said. “I thought people would read the story and say, ‘that’s a nice story.’ But I’ve had e-mails from New Mexico and California and Minnesota. It’s just been crazy. I’ve been quite overwhelmed with people want to help out any way they can.”

Ortiz and Seckinger have ordered another batch of 1,500 more charms, and those should be in during the next three to four weeks. Stores in Effingham County and the Effingham schools have asked about getting some to sell.

And Seckinger is eager to get another event going.

“She’s like, ‘can we do another one of these benefits?’” Ortiz said.