NEA Members Reach Out to Evacuees

When Maxine Guidry, president of the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA)/NEA affiliate in Galveston, found out evacuees from New Orleans were arriving in her district, she sent out an e-mail to members, asking if they could find a way to pitch in. The response was immediate: "I can host a family." "I'll wash their clothes." "If anyone needs babysitting, they can call on me." That was in addition to the outpouring of donations of money, clothing, toiletries, food, toys, books, and school supplies.

"It's just about helping," said Guidry, a seventh grade teacher at Stephen Austin Middle School in Galveston. "That's what TSTA/NEA stands for."

Story Hour at Astrodome

After watching evacuees file into the Astrodome on the news, Fran Valenzuela, a retired teacher from the Clear Creek Independent School District in Houston and an active TSTA/NEA member, sprang into action. She drove downtown and announced to the volunteers running the shelter that she was a teacher and wanted to read to the children. "They said they wanted me to go to a volunteer training, but I told them I didn't need training to read a story. I'm a teacher!" Valenzuela said. Convinced, the volunteers led her in and soon a group of young evacuees were gathered around for a story. One of the children asked if he could go home with her. "I like how you read," he told her.

"It was such a touching experience," Valenzuela said. "After leaving, I got to the first stop light before the tears started flowing."

Hanging out the Welcome Mat

Carolyn Mays, assistant principal of Oak Creek Elementary in Houston, Texas, and TSTA/NEA member, grew up in New Orleans and went back to visit often. When the floodwaters devastated the 9^th Ward, forty-four members of her family lost everything. "That was our home," she said.

But she is undeterred by nearly constant scenes and stories of desperation. After the school day ends, she works tirelessly to help her displaced relatives find the assistance they need. And the minute she walks through the school doors the next morning, her full-time attention is on the newly enrolled evacuated children. With so many of her own family going through the same experience, Mays said she has a special affinity for the evacuated children and is ensuring that the whole school is ready to "hang out that welcome mat."

"These are America's children," Mays said. "They may have moved from one state or city to the next, but they all need our help. They're all our children."

"TSTA/NEA stands for excellence in education, and we know that every educator has to be feeling what we're feeling," Mays added. "These children and their families have been traumatized. They need all of us -- the NEA family and educators nationwide -- to reach out to them."

Around the Country

And NEA members and educators around the country are reaching out. A group of NEA paraeducators from Dover, Delaware, sent two big boxes of soap to Cherokee Elementary School in Alexandria, Louisiana. Coincidentally, the Ivory Soap packages say "The Soap that Floats," which brought some much-needed smiles to storm-weary evacuees.

The Humphreys County Education Association (HCEA) in Tennessee collected baby bottles and food, formula, wipes, personal hygiene supplies, detergent, and stuffed animals for distribution. HCEA members Janelle Graves and Janeene Forrester volunteered their truck and horse trailer to transport all the supplies to a local church where they were loaded onto trucks bound for the disaster area.

In towns and cities across the nation, NEA members are helping their students raise "Koins for Katrina" or "Nickels for New Orleans" among a variety of other ways to contribute to the recovery. We want to hear -- and see -- your story. Please send us your story along with any digital photos you might have to share.

-- Cindy Long, NEA staff writer