HancockCountyRelief

Barron School Assisting Kiln

Barron students send aid to Kiln, MississippiStudents, teachers, education support professionals, parents and citizens from Barron (Northwest United Educators) filled a semi-truck with school supplies and other materials in September to help residents of hurricane-devastated Kiln, Mississippi, home of Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre.

Several teachers and students followed the truck to Kiln and helped distribute materials. In a written account of their trip, they said the damage was overwhelming: schools were flooded; 30% to 40% of teachers were left homeless; most homes were left unlivable by a combination of water and wind damage. Most schools in Kiln did not open for classes until mid-October.

Barron High School guidance counselor Rod Wiemeri, Barron High School math teacher Brenda Haag, Riverview Middle School language arts teacher Kathy Waldvogel, high school students Jenny Myers and Nate Kringle, and middle school student Maggie Mickelson wrote an account of their trip to Kiln.

They said they adopted Kiln and Hancock County schools because the area is similar in size to Barron and they wanted to work with the Brett Favre Fourward Foundation, which has helped students in both states.

They said Faith Assembly of God Church received their donations and recruited volunteers to help unload and distribute materials.

One woman – now homeless and jobless – “was so choked up with emotion she could hardly talk but she thanked us for the food and other items we brought,” they wrote. “She was amazed that a community in northern Wisconsin would care enough to bring items all the way to Mississippi.”

They said they collected contact information and will organize more shipments of supplies to Kiln.

posted by Leslie @ 7/01/2006 06:10:00 PM