by Kaela Williams, Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Public Schools communications coordinator
Edwardsville Elementary School students and staff have collected 3,292 items to help victims in Texas who were affected by Hurricane Harvey.
The students participated in the community-wide effort led by the Edwardsville Fire Department. Edwardsville Fire Chief Tim Whitham came up with the idea to collect items that were transported to areas affected by the hurricane. The items from Edwardsville school were dropped off last weekend to be sent to hurricane victims.
Items such as toiletries, towels and baby wipes were collected for hurricane relief. The city of Edwardsville, Edwardsville-Bonner Spring Kiwanis Club and local distribution company EARP quickly offered to help collect items across the community.
Edwardsville Elementary Principal Tracy Copeland saw the project coming to life and immediately reached out to Chief Whitham to see how the school could get involved.
“Knowing that one of EDW’s core beliefs is that all students demonstrate character traits through community involvement, I saw this as an excellent opportunity for our future leaders to help out their community; we want to reciprocate the support that we have received from our own community while also helping those ravaged by Harvey,” Copeland said.
The school had a friendly competition between classes to see which group could collect the most items. The winning class will have lunch with members of the Edwardsville Fire Department.
– Story and photo from Kaela Williams, Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Public Schools communications coordinator.