Students pitch in to help victims of Katrina

Flathead High School students reached across the country last month to help those whose homes and lives were left devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

In the forefront of the fund-raising effort were the students and staff of the social studies department, led by history teacher Kristyn Morin.

After Morins U.S. history and world history classes saw the images of destruction on the Gulf Coast after the hurricane, they asked what a small high school in Kalispell, Mont., could do to make a difference.

After 9/11, Morins students, struggling with similar feelings of hopelessness, had made red, white and blue ribbons of remembrance and raised more than $2,000 for the American Red Cross. So many students felt a small sense of peace and goodwill that they truly made a difference after the attack, Morin says.

Morin launched a similar fund-raising campaign for Katrina relief, this time choosing to give a simple string bracelet for every donation. In a commercial that the classes ran on the school news station, they stated, This circle of string will be a symbol of hope, compassion and connection to those people, those Americans who are suffering right now. The volunteers were asked to tie the string on personally. The human touch at a time like this is so important to us all, says Morin.

The response was amazing, she says. I had over 30 volunteers the first day. They manned donation jars and tables at lunchtime, and collected more at a rain-soaked Braves football game.

When the donations were tallied at the end of the week, the total was nearly $1,500 thats money out of the pockets of students, much of which was from the students lunch money, gas money and savings.

Morin thanks all the students and staff who put forth such a profound effort to raise the money, and especially to all who gave so generously. You really will change lives, Morin says.

After teaching for 22 years, Morin expressed her pride and confidence in todays youths. Even a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step, she tells her students. You took that first step.

Theres one grandmother out there who really loves her 7-year-old granddaughter and wants everyone to know about her. The grandmother of Creston Elementary student Madison Thomason wrote to the Inter Lake recently to let us know her granddaughter had received a letter of accomplishment from first lady Laura Bush (as we suspect many young, American readers of promise have) upon completing 22 books during summer break.

Thomason also received some pictures of Air Force One, the president and first lady, the presidential helicopter, Marine One and a picture of the Bush familys three pets: Miss Beazley and Barney Bush, their dogs; and India Willie Bush, their cat.

Grandmother Judy Largo of Phoenix spread the news all the way to her granddaughters hometown daily in the hopes that it might inspire another child. Im very proud of her, and I want her to know it, she wrote.