Students reach out to aid Katrina victims

At this time of year many of us reflect on what we have to be thankful for and, in this particular year, Hurricane Katrina's devastation has been a vivid reminder that we have much for which to be thankful.

When the first telecasts were shown portraying the damage to the Gulf coast, students at the North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD) in Morganton, like so many others, were shocked. The loss of lives and damage to property was beyond comprehension.

NCSD students immediately expressed a desire to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They learned that the Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge, LA was providing temporary living quarters, food, and clothing to deaf individuals and their families and that, in so doing, the school had stretched its resources beyond capacity. NCSD's Student Body Government sponsored a car wash and earned $435.00. Staff and students donated $240.82 in cash. The NCSD Booster Club and the NCSD Alumni Associated each donated $100.00. NCSD students also collected clothing and school supplies.

NCSD sent the money raised, $875.82, to the Louisiana School for the Deaf for use to help provide necessities to Hurricane Katrina victims. In addition, the wife of NCSD staff member Jeff Fitzgerald graciously volunteered to drive a van load of donated clothes to the Louisiana School for the Deaf. And, finally, NCSD donated boxes of school supplies to the Mississippi School for the Deaf and delivered them by bus when students from NCSD and the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, traveled to Mississippi for a sports tournament.

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Last Modified: December 2, 2005