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Help Has Arrived: A Project to Aid a School Damaged By Katrina Has Developed into a Cultural Exchange

Posted on: Thursday, 2 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Jessamy Brown, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Feb. 2--FRANKLINTON, La. -- The Pine High School students were a little hesitant to meet the visitors from Southlake coming to their small struggling campus bearing gifts Wednesday.

But the two groups soon found each other to be outspoken, friendly and quick to laugh. And both groups like to organize school activities.

"I didn't expect them to be like us," said Talena Pope, an 18-year-old Pine High senior, student council member and cheerleader. "We're from different places, different incomes. They are people I would be friends with if they lived around here."

The Carroll district had adopted the Louisiana school to help it recover after Hurricane Katrina.

Carroll student leaders flew from Texas early Wednesday and visited classes at Pine High, whose students come primarily from low-income families. They were hosted by student leaders who showed them damage from the storm and thanked them for sending money and an expected 162 boxes of school supplies.

Last fall, Carroll students at all 11 campuses organized Students Embracing Students fund-raisers and raised more than $20,000 for Pine High. Next, Carroll students held library book and classroom supply drives for their adopted campus.

On Wednesday, Pine High students showed how grateful they were during a tour of their small campus and a Louisiana-style lunch of gumbo and king cake.

"Coming from Southlake, you have to see it to believe it. It's just a whole different world," said Emily Looft, 18, president of the Carroll Senior High School student council. "It gets to the bottom of what fund raising really is, to see it is doing good. Your passion for fund raising is that much stronger."

The program is turning into a cultural exchange. An elementary school class is starting an e-mail pen pals program. And Pine High students are eager to visit Southlake for an overnight visit. On Wednesday, the two groups of students exchanged e-mail addresses.

"I told them, 'It isn't a trip for us to give stuff to kids.' It's to develop relationships with kids and learn about another culture," said Mark Terry, Eubanks Intermediate School principal. "I think once they get back, they'll talk about it."

The Pine campus, which serves students from kindergarten to sixth grade and ninth through 12th grades, sustained a lot of roof damage during the hurricane and was flooded with 2 to 3 inches of water. Many of the students' homes were damaged or destroyed, and some lost all their clothing and school supplies.

The campus is in a rural area where many of the students' parents work in the lumber and paper industry. All but 3 percent of the students qualify for federal free or reduced-cost lunches.

The school, built in 1938, already needed repairs before the hurricane. Classrooms are air-conditioned with window units, and hallways and a gym have no cooling at all. Some students attend classes in what were once basketball team dressing rooms, the principal said.

Fortunately, a bond measure passed in 2003 means that a new school for grades six through 12 will open next year.

The visit began with lunch in a gym that lost all its shingles in the storm. To welcome their guests, Pine High students drew a poster with the Carroll Dragon mascot and passed out Mardi Gras beads made by a fine arts class. As students ate, they compared notes about how each school runs its student council activities.

Washington Parish school officials and Pine High faculty members gathered to thank the Carroll delegation for the donations.

"It means so much. The kids here were ecstatic when they found out about it. It is a blessing," said Washington parish superintendent Dennie Fowler.

Carroll students gave Pine students a bag of 296 gift cards bought by members of the National Art Honor Society at Carroll Senior High School, which raised $2,300 at a band competition in December. The teens wanted Pine students to be able to choose something for themselves, Looft said.

Last fall's fund-raising effort involved every Carroll school. Students at Eubanks Intermediate School sold Mardi Gras beads for $5 a set, raising more than $2,000. Children at Dawson Middle School held a book drive to replace Pine High's damaged library collection.

On Wednesday, the Carroll students presented more cash from the Southlake community, including $190 from a Rockenbaugh Elementary School coin drive and $1,400 from Altrusa DFW, a women's service organization that auctioned off two professional football jerseys at the group's October gala auction.

Still to come are the boxes, filled with binders, art supplies and backpacks. They were shipped free to New Orleans during the weekend by Southwest Airlines, and arrangements are being made to take them the remaining 85 miles to Pine High.

Shelby Brown, 14, president of the Dawson Middle School student council, said she was impressed with the Pine students' positive attitude.

"I learned that you never know what's going to happen," she said. "I learned that there are such good ways to handle it."

ONLINE: www.southlakecarroll.edu

www.phs.wpsb.org

IN THE KNOW

About the schools

Pine High School

Location: Franklinton, La.

School System: Washington Parish

Enrollment: 580 students

Mascot: Raiders

Colors: Red, white, royal blue

SOURCES: Carroll school district, Pine High School

Washington Parish schools White: 67.4 percent

Black: 31.7 percent

Other: 0.8 percent

Median household income: $24,254; 32.2 percent of children live below poverty line

Carroll school district

Location: Southlake

White: 89.4 percent

Asian: 4.3 percent

Hispanic: 4.1 percent

Black: 2.0 percent

Median household income (Southlake): $86,087

Average house value: $380,653

SOURCES: 2003-04 District Composite Report, Louisiana Department of Education, City of Southlake, Carroll school district, Texas Education Agency

Jessamy Brown, (817) 685-3876 jessamybrown@star-telegram.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)

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