Buckeyes for Bucks

The class at Granby Elementary has been discussing ways to raise money for supplies for Mrs. Schultz's class at Andrew Jackson. Making Buckeyes and selling them in the cafeteria was selected as the best idea, and today was "making them day." Here are some pictures of the work hour. Production lines were set up, and teams assigned to the mixing, rolling, dipping and packaging. Selling will take place on Monday at lunch time, after the balls have had a good chance to set over the weekend. The Buckeyes will sell at the bargain price of four for one dollar, and orders are streaming in.

How can I help?

Many friends and relatives have heard about the project, and donated money so that we can buy supplies. Over the holidays, over $2,000 was donated, and I became a purchasing agent for the $1,100 worth of supplies (14 cases) purchased to date. My basement is filling up, and my van will be overflowing. Great!!!!! We will have to ship future supplies, but that's not a problem.

Staples has been the supplier where most of the basic supplies have been purchased, and they will ship at no cost. http://www.staples.com/ will take you to their website. Holcomb's Knowplace was a good location for teacher's supplies, and we did find the special "Judy Clock" on-line at ABC Teacher's Supply. I have asked for ten of the teachers to share their needs with us, so we can help them with specific purchases. I expect to have that information soon.

We have set up a bank account at Fifth Third Bank in Columbus, and one can donate directly to that account: The Andrew Jackson Elementary School Charity Fund. If you would like to send checks to me, please email mitch2006@columbus.rr.com for mailing instructions. If you would rather do that, I will continue to communicate with the teachers, and ship to them using the funds in the account. Needless to say, 100% of the funds are used for supplies.

The Assistant Principal at AJE who helped get us started is Lisa Young and her email address is lyoung@stbernard.k12.la.us. I'm sure Lisa can put you in touch with a specific teacher with whom you can "connect", if you would like to go directly to the school. Please let me know if you do, so we can have an overview of what is happening should more coordination is needed.

The school's address is: Andrew Jackson Elementary School, 102 Eighth Street, Chalmatte, LA 70043. AJE is a K through 6th school.

Information about our teacher

Donna Schultz is the teacher we began working with at Andrew Jackson Elementary, so you might like to know a little about her. Donna has taught for 24 years, but lost virtually everything in Katrina. Fourteen feet of water filled her home, and she has been living in an 8' x 24' FEMA trailer for the past sixteen months along with her husband and 16-year old son. In addition to her personal loss, she lost her arsenal of teaching materials, collected over many years. The map above shows the location of Chalmette, where the school is located, relative to downtown New Orleans.

Donna's 16-year old son suffers from Downs Syndrome, but is attending the high school, and is progressing well. Donna also has a daughter who graduated from Tulane University (on
scholarship). Her daughter had moved to Las Vegas in November, right after the storm. However, the day she was supposed to move, Donna's dad died. Just 3 months after Katrina. Her daughter was able to move back to New Orleans, and now works as a concierge in one of the hotels.

Despite the hardships, Donna, her husband and sixteen year-old son are working to rebuild their home. She described the progress as painstakingly slow, but the house is now stripped down to it's studs. They are beginning to install utilities. Donna is also starting work on her Master's Degree this year, so you can appreciate that she is stretched thin. On several occasions she has reffered to our group of donors as her angels, and considers herself "blessed."

I think you can understand why we want to help Donna and her fellow teachers at Andrew Jackson Elementary.

What do they need?

The first post provides some of the background for this project. Reading the list of needs gives one a feel for how serious the problem is, sixteen months after Katrina devastated this area. When I asked Mrs. Schultz what she needed, she sent the following list of items:

"Here are some of the supplies that we could use:"

• washable markers
• colored pencils
• 3 prong pocket folders
• loose leaf paper
• construction paper
• red pens
• highlighters
• steno notebooks for homework assignments
• glue sticks
• scissors

Teacher supplies needed:

• tape for tape dispenser
• manila folders
• black line resource books for all subject areas
• permanent markers
• ink for printer
• computer software suitable for students
• large Judy clock

In other words they lack the basics to do their jobs, teaching kids who have been through hell. We went to work immediately to get some of these into her hands, and are now in the process of purchasing quantities of supplies for eleven of the fourth grade classes. Mrs. Schultz did add two other items to her origiinal list; headphones for the five teaching computers and blank transparency material for the overhead projector.

Andrew Jackson Elementary School Needs Help

The Circle of Grandparents organization volunteers in the Worthington, Ohio Elementary School System, by volunteering time each month to talk to one of the classes. The volunteer works with the same class all year, and mine is Mrs. Dicke's Fourth Grade at Granby Elementary School where the kids know me as Grandpa Mitch.

Each month there is a discussion word, and December's was Compassion. Compassion vs. sympathy, as I chose to define compassion was: doing something about someone's problem as opposed to just feeling sorry for them. In that vein, I talked about the kids in the New Orleans area, and the continuing problems they face fifteen months after Katrina.

I had Googled the heck out of the Internet to find a school district with the most problems, and ended up finding the Andrew Jackson Elementary School in Chalmette, Louisiana. That's located in St. Bernard Parish near the city of New Orleans. Chalmette had 65,000 residents and thirteen schools prior to the storm. They now have 20,000 residents and only two schools. The children from the seven previous elementary schools were all moved into one of the former high schools, and they have 2,000 students in that one school. There are eleven fourth grades in the school, and I wanted to create a link between my kids' fourth grade and one of them.

The Supervisor of Personnel for the School Board helped me find the assistant principal, Lisa Young, who introduced me (via email) to Mrs. Donna Schultz who teaches a fourth grade class. We started to correspond about what she needed, and we here in Columbus, OH were taken aback by the simplicity of the needs - basic things like paper, markers, scotch tape, file folders, etc. etc.

Our kids were quick to jump on the idea of showing compassion, by gathering supplies and money over the Christmas holidays, and then bringing them to class. I'm going to drive to New Orleans to deliver the supplies in mid January.

While discussing the project with some friends, we quickly found how generous people can be when they know a problem exists. Within a week, we had collected several hundred dollars, and the amount has kept growing. This will be a parallel program to that of the kids', and we will aim at helping all eleven of the fourth grades.

We have a list of needed items from the teacher, and we did ship down an initial shipment of the most basic supplies so it will be there after the kids return from vacation. Now we are purchasing the other supplies needed in Mrs. Schultz's class, and making plans for the other ten.