September 28, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Palo Altans rally to help ravaged school district

by Alexandria Rocha

Despite a shortage of supplies and significant roof and water damage, schools in Louisiana's St. Tammany Parish will attempt to reopen Monday. Those in the Palo Alto educational community will be doing more than just watching.

The "Bridge of Caring" program, a partnership between six local organizations, is a massive effort to help seven St. Tammany schools rebuild not only their hurricane-ravaged campuses, but their school years. The parish's Head Start program will also be a beneficiary.

"The hurricanes have created an immediate, visible crisis in our country. It pains us to see this and we want to help," wrote Melissa Baton Caswell, president of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs, in an e-mail to the Weekly.

After Hurricane Katrina, dozens of fundraisers and efforts to help sprouted up in Palo Alto -- many coming from teachers, students and parents. Caswell decided to band the efforts into a partnership, which includes the local and county PTAs, the Palo Alto Unified School District, Working Wonders, the Parents' Club of Palo Alto and Menlo Park and Youth Community Services, and implement one concise program.

A wide range of fundraisers will be held at each of the schools. Starting Monday, for example, there will be bins at most campuses for students and community members to deposit school supplies. Because the program is also meant to carry a lesson in philanthropy for children here, the donations will be assembled and packaged by students at an after-school program led by Working Wonders, or WOW, a local nonprofit organization. Students, teachers and parents from both areas will be encouraged to connect with those from their sister schools.

There will also be a community fair organized by Gunn and Palo Alto high school students in October, in which every school will have a chance to set up a fundraising booth.

"We don't want our kids to look at donating and supporting each other as writing a check. It's very easy in Palo Alto to look at it that way. It doesn't create a connection," Caswell said. "A lot of this will be student oriented to put a face on the disaster to send the message of caring."

Funds and supplies raised through the effort will go directly to the Louisiana PTA and then dispersed to the selected sites.

Bridges of Caring leaders wanted to help schools in socio-economic disadvantaged areas. They looked at the percentage of students on free and reduced lunches prior to the hurricanes, as well as the population of minorities.

"We didn't want a mirror of Palo Alto. The communities that are affluent have ways to raise money," said Caswell. "We wanted a smaller district that might be overlooked."

The schools also had to have operating PTAs and plans to reopen this fall. The program's overall goal is to develop a long-term relationship with St. Tammany's educational community and to do so, there needed to be a PTA to connect with and a sense of when the schools would open.

The seven campuses chosen include Alton, Bayou Lacombe, Bayou Woods, Chahta-Ima, Florida Avenue and Glyn Brock elementary schools and St. Tammany Junior High School.

St. Tammany is just north of New Orleans and rests on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. According to the parish's Web site, about 30,000 homes were devastated during Hurricane Katrina and about 40,000 school-aged children have been displaced from their schools and enrolled in other sites. There is currently an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for residents of St. Tammany. While less devastating, Hurricane Rita caused winds up to 30 miles per hour and additional flooding.

"It's been unbelievable. I try to describe things and you just can't get your head around everything that this has done," said Cheryl Joslyn, president of the Louisiana PTA during a phone interview Monday.

"I'm almost 50 years old and I have not ever seen this number of people affected by anything, and to this degree."

Joslyn said the best way to help is monetary donations. She said local fundraisers have been diminished, as residents do not have any disposable income to help. As the months go on, she said funding for additional mental health workers is going to be essential.

"What these kids have been through and what these adults have been through, it's already beyond a normal stress level," she said.

School supplies will also help, as the teachers and students in the most devastated areas have lost nearly everything. As part of its efforts, the Parents' Club of Palo Alto and Menlo Park have been running a back pack drive, which ends Friday to aid students in time for next week's start day in St. Tammany.

Bridges of Caring donations can be made at the school district's Palo Alto office, 25 Churchill Ave. For more information on the program, e-mail Caswell at mbcaswell@yahoo.com.

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