Pomperaug Regional School District 15 Raises Funds and Student Awareness in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

October 2005 -- As in the days immediately following 9/11 and the Tsunami disaster, staff and students throughout Pomperaug Regional School District 15 joined forces to raise funds and provide comfort to the victims of Hurricane Katrina while raising student awareness.

                A step in Region 15’s long term Strategic Plan is to develop and implement plans to encourage more students to be involved in meaningful service and citizenship activities.  While the money raised for charitable causes is a critical component in any relief effort, lessons in humanity are at the center of the plan. 

                “Our focus is not on the amount of money earned in a fundraiser but raising the awareness of our own students about the greater responsibility to the community, whether that is local, state, national, or international,” said Richard Gusenburg, Principal of Long Meadow Elementary School (LMES).  “We want all our children to feel that it’s important to be positively involved in making this a better world.”

                At LMES, the third grade teaching team put their “Pennies from Heaven” jars into action.  Children throughout the school were encouraged to do chores around the house to earn money for Katrina Victims.  To date, they have raised over $2,600.

                LMES third grade teacher, Mrs. Jane White, explained how human disasters and current events are discussed with her students.  “Following any event such as 9/11 and the Tsunami, we normally meet as a staff and discuss how we will speak to the children about the particular event.  We are taught to be sensitive to our students when dealing with these matters,” she explained. 

                Mrs. White said students do a lot of journal writing throughout the school year.   “We read

student journals and write back to them,” she said.  “This is a wonderful way to respond to what a student may be thinking, feeling, what’s important to them or what they want to know more about.”

                In grades three, four and five, many Region 15 elementary school students use “Time for Kids” (“TFK”) when discussing current events.  “TFK” is a weekly classroom news magazine published by Time, Inc.  The magazine contains stories about world and national events, scientific discoveries, sports, entertainment and much more. 

                Several Region 15 elementary school teachers report that “Time for Kids” is a wonderful teaching tool that promotes factual classroom discussion. 

                “The stories in TFK are really good,” said Gainfield Elementary School (GES) fifth grader, Megan Paul.  “The magazine informs you about current events at a kid’s level.  We read stories about the destruction and how families were affected.”

                According to GES, fifth grade teacher, Maureen Campbell, students raised over $3,000 with “Chores for Charity”.  “The fundraiser was a way to connect kids to the disaster that affected other American children just like them,” she said.  “It teaches them they have a responsibility to help others in need.”

                Carissa Keepin, Principal at Pomperaug Elementary School (PES), said at the younger grade levels, events are addressed as they spill into the classroom through student discussion and questions.  “This year, I discussed the need to help the people who were victims of the hurricane with every class grades one through five in my opening visits to each class,” she said.  “Just bringing up the topic of needing to help these victims sparked lots of discussion.”

                Mrs. Keepin explained that the varying age range for students at the elementary level presents different needs.  “We are sensitive to the fact that many children and their families may be directly impacted in serious ways in a local crisis, so we prepare to respond with support, and provide listening, discussion and comfort.”

                Rochambeau Middle School Principal, Lauren Robinson said, “I believe that learning is made more meaningful when students can relate their own lives to the concepts they are learning.   In this way students deeply understand and remember what they have learned,” she explains.

                Anita Dibble, 8^th grade Language Arts teacher from Memorial Middle School (MMS) began a literature unit on short stories with “The Big Wave” by Pearl Buck.  The story takes place in a Japanese village affected by a tidal wave and a volcano, and deals with the destruction’s affect on the life of a young boy. 

                “I try to have my students connect what they read to their personal lives, other works of literature or situations that come up locally or nationally,” she explained.  Ms. Dibble said students were asked to bring in news articles on Hurricane Katrina and write a paragraph connecting the article with the plot or theme of the short story.

                MMS history teacher, Mr. Eric Gottfried began the year with a unit on the Reconstruction Period.  “It has provided an opportunity for a tie-in to past history that helps us all relate the present to the past,” he said.

                For two days, during C-Block period, Pomperaug High School (PHS) students, staff and parents raised over $4,500 through a fundraiser organized by student council members.  All proceeds will be given to the Connecticut Association of Schools’ (CAS) current relief program to help rebuild schools and buy school supplies in the aftermath of our nation’s worst natural disaster. 

                Joyce Niestemski, PHS Physical Education and Health teacher, who serves on the leadership board of CAS, explained that the relief program is about kids helping kids.  “In my Health and Physical Education classes, we talked about some families that I know who live in the affected areas.  I spoke to students from my heart about how these people were stricken and what we could do to help.  It’s hard for us to even imagine such a thing,” she said.  “I told the kids to speak from their hearts when asking people to help.”

                PHS Sophomore, Jillian Kaplita said, “My French teacher in C-Block told us to look around to see how much we have in our lives.  It made me realize how much I have and that I could take a little out of my pocket to help someone else.”

                Additional fundraisers continue to take place throughout the Region.  One dollar for each general admission ticket to PHS’s first home football game and one dollar of a general admission ticket to RMS’s “Back to School” dance have gone to relief efforts.  Middlebury Elementary raised over $3,500 through a coin drive and MMS collected teddy bears for children effected by the Hurricane.  Region 15 joins schools around the country and is prepared to receive any students who were displaced by Katrina’s wrath.