School Supply Drive a Smash!!

Several months of planning, caring, compassion, interest and motivation all manifested itself last Thursday as our School Supply Drive for Andrew Jackson Elementary School in St. Bernard Parish concluded with the actual distribution of supplies to teachers and children. Thanks to everyone's caring, participation and support, the drive was a smashing success!

Setting up in the school's library early Thursday, we had seven tables full of supplies and a floor full of backpacks (all stuffed with supplies). By the end of the day, we had over 60 extremely grateful teachers and literally hundreds of smiling and happy kids. Starting at 9 a.m., teachers began to file into the library to gather what they needed for their classrooms and for the children in their class who they knew didn't have all their supplies. For some, we just boxed up what they selected and then delivered the goods to the classroom, saying hi to the kids.

We had volunteers from Target and Radio Disney of New Orleans, as well as several grandparents of kids in the school, all of whom were a tremendous help. Target did an incredible job helping us get many of the items in bulk with the cash we raised, while Radio Disney provided awesome entertainment for the kids throughout the day at the school, going to classrooms and setting up a Disney tent and playing music for four consecutive periods out on the playground during recess (no easy feat given the heat). A huge thanks also goes out to Disney Corp., which through their Volunt-ears! program shipped down 100 stuffed backpacks for us to distribute.

Special Note: While many people contributed in a number of different ways, all of which were incredibly helpful, I do want to recognize two people in particular, because without them and without the things they did, this Drive wouldn't have been nearly as successful as it turned out to be: Erin Donovan and Andrea Bean. I hope you both know that I recognize how much you added to this project, everything from promoting it to contributing to it to seeing it through to its completion. Thank you!

In all, including donations sent to the St. Bernard Parish School District, we raised approximately $5,000 in cash and donated items. Thank you once again to everyone who helped contribute to this very successful initiative. The faculty and children of Andrew Jackson are extremely grateful. Just know that we all helped brighten the day a bit for the people of an area still in recovery mode from one of this country's worst catastrophe's. Now it's time for me to let some of the pictures do the talking (click on the photos to enlarge).