What started two years ago as a fun way for a mother and daughter to heal after a house fire has grown into a back-to-school tradition with about 30 family and friends — and a special guest this year.

The Swindell family suffered a house fire in August 2017. Tonya Swindell and her daughter, Zoey — the only girl of the four Swindell children — went to the Stillwater House Tea Room later that month before the start of school to get some time together and de-stress.

“Prior to (the fire), I had been talking to some friends who told me about the tea house and said it was a cute place they had gone with their daughters,” Tonya Swindell said. “I looked for something Zoey and I could do together and de-stress and be together before school started.”

While there, Swindell connected with the owner of the tea room, Diane Kippes. The following year, Swindell decided to have Zoey and her friends to the tea house for a back-to-school event.

“They just hung out, ate, talked, that kind of thing — and enjoyed the tea house,” Swindell said.

But this year, the event took on an inspirational purpose.

Zoey and about a dozen of her friends, plus moms and other family members, got the chance to hear from Dr. Christine Darden at the tea room on Saturday. Darden was one of the “human computers” featured in the 2016 book “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race,” by Margot Lee Shetterly. The book inspired the film “Hidden Figures,” although Darden is not portrayed in the film.

Darden began working at NASA in 1967, she told the youngsters on Saturday. She recounted discovering a love for math as a youngster. She was unimpressed with her algebra class but fell in love with geometry after discovering its real-world applications.

“Mathematics is really powerful,” she said. “You can do so much in the real world.”

She told the girls about pursuing a math degree in college, taking as many math classes as she could — one semester, she even got special permission to take two that met at the same time.

Darden recalled how she pressed forward in her career even when it was tough. Five years after getting hired at NASA, she got transferred to the engineering department simply by asking why no women worked there, even when they had the same education as some of the men in the department.

Zoey said she thought the event was fun and especially enjoyed hearing from Dr. Darden.

“I thought it was really fun,” she said. “And I thought it was really special, because we had a special guest come and talk to us.”

Zoey added she enjoyed getting to see her friends again before school starts.

“It’s an annual event, so we’re going to try to do it every year,” she said.

At the event, Swindell also encouraged the girls to say hello to other students who seem to be down.

“I wanted them to be the ones that connect with others and other girls and other people,” she said. “I was looking for it to be a connecting event, but also one that inspired them.”