Packing Week - FEMA Trailer

This is the week to pack the van, and see how much it can hold. I did get some great news from Lisa Young, Assistant Principal at the school. She has made arrangements for me to stay in one of the FEMA trailers while I'm at the school (if I wanted). So, after getting organized in a hotel for one night when I arrive, I'll move into one of the trailers that many of the teachers and families of the Andrew Jackson students have been living in for the past seventeen months. I should get a little appreciation of what they have been going through, albeit for a short time.

With my van at capacity, I did make a few more shipments directly from Staples this week. They were scheduled to arrive Friday afternoon, but I haven't heard yet. I've noticed that communications to the school are very difficult. Despite repeated tries at telephoning the school, I have never connected. All our communications have been through email or through Donna Schultz's cell phone. I suspect the lack of phone lines is but one of the resident's frustrations.

Another 4th Grade Classes Connects

Today, we had a second fourth grade class bring in their collection of supplies and money for the Andrew Jackson Project. Ms. Carmie Hazlett's class at Slate Run Elementary School will be sending two large cartons to the fourth grade class of Ms. Kimberly Derouen at Andrew Jackson. Diane DeMuth, one of the Circle-of-Grandparents volunteers, who works with Ms. Hazlett in the class, was "overwhelemed" by the outpouring of compassion from these "wonderful kids." Now that the ball is rolling, we hope other classes will pick up the torch, and run with it.

Some History

The school is located in Chalmette, a suburb of New Orleans. Chalmette's history is interesting in that it was the location of the famous Battle of New Orleans where the United States forces under General Andrew Jackson defeated the British in 1815.

On August 29, 2005 an enormous storm surge was pushed by Hurricane Katrina up the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a little-used commercial channel dug by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s. The entire town was innundated, up to 30 feet in some places. As a result, in a matter of hours, Chalmette was almost entirely destroyed. A mile to the west, the 9th ward of New Orleans was similarly flooded.

Buckeye Sale is a Big Success

Football jerseys were prevalant all day on Monday, as enthusiasm was high for the Ohio State Buckeyes. The national championship game day coincided with the day of the "Bucks for Buckeyes" sale to raise money for Andrew Jackson Elementary School.

This full basket of Buckeyes sold out during the lunch period on Monday. This is one of the dynamic teams that marketed the fine product made by the class on Friday. The timing was perfect, since the Ohio State Buckeyes were playing for the National Championship on Monday evening. Over one hundred dollars were raised.

A second money raising idea was also a big success. Any student in the school was allowed to wear his or her cap to school, if they paid one dollar to the Andrew Jackson Fund. Over one hundred students paid the dollar, and almost all the caps said something about the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Congratulations to Mrs. Dicke's class, and thanks to all the students at Granby who participated