COLTS NECK — Hurricane Ike may be just a distant memory to most people, but it is not a distant memory at the Cedar Drive Middle School. After the devastating hurricane struck the Houston, Texas, area in September, Cedar Drive’s eighth-grade pupils decided to help in a most direct way.
“They adopted the Bayshore Elementary School in La Porte, Texas, and collected school supplies for the students there,” said Ileen Stoner, the Colts Neck School District service learning coordinator. “They heard about the need at Bayshore and put a plan into action.”
A school supplies drive was started and ran from Oct. 13-17. A total of 19 boxes of supplies, weighing a combined 400 pounds, were filled. The supplies will be sent to Texas this month with the shipping costs paid by the school’s Learn and Serve grant, Stoner said.
The students and staff at Cedar Drive Middle School wanted to help directly and to address a specific need in the disaster area, said Stoner. She went to the Internet Web site, www.bushclintoncoastalrecoveryfund. org, and eventually was led to Christina King, donor services manager of the Greater Houston Community Foundation who suggested Bayshore Elementary School.
“Christina e-mailed information and photos of hurricane ravaged La Porte, a town with a population of about 1,700,” said Stoner. “Of the town’s 650 homes, 575 were completely uninhabitable. The elementary school was vandalized prior to the storm and after the storm it was unusable. The students were relocated to other schools and lost not only their homes, but their school.”
After collecting the school supplies, the Cedar Drive Middle School students are now holding a penny race to help the La Porte children and their families.
“Clear plastic containers for each grade are placed in the cafeteria,” Stoner said. “Each penny counts for one point and the grade with the most points wins. Any other coin or paper money is subtracted by its value. For example, a nickel causes a loss of five points.”
Another project to raise funds for the Bayshore Elementary School is making stuffed colt animals since a colt is the mascot for the Cedar Drive Middle School.
“The students will stuff the golden brown colts with fiber-fill and sell them at the school as a symbol of school spirit,” Stoner said. “At first we were going to send them to the Bayshore Elementary School, but we thought the money will serve the area better. We will sell them at other gatherings, too, and hope to have them ready this month.”
Eighth-grade pupils in Stoner’s elective class, Community Connections, and in teacher Jodi Richards’ Stock Market elective class, created a video montage of music and photos to promote the school supplies drive and the continued support for the Bayshore Elementary School. The video presentation can be viewed by clicking on Cedar Drive Middle School at www.coltsneckschools. org.
Stoner said the Cedar Drive students are scheduled to show the video as part of their presentation on the adoption of the Texas school to the Colts Neck Board of Education at the board’s November meeting.
Bayshore Elementary School is a public school with pupils in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. According to the Web site muninetguide.com, the school had a student body of 482 during the 2004-05 school year.
For more information about Cedar Drive Middle School’s adoption of the Bayshore Elementary School in La Porte, Texas, email Stoner at [email protected] or call 732-946-0055, ext.7350.