A Smart Gift

Post-Katrina, Kentucky's student members swing into fund-raising gear to help the neediest schools with technology.

How does a coffee-scented candle bring a whiff of hope to disaster-struck schools along the Gulf Coast? Ask members of the Kentucky Education Association Student Program (KEA-SP), who have turned their fund-raising attention to the gaping technology needs of the newly devastated schools of Alabama and Mississippi.

Kentucky's emerging leaders, KEA-SP President Kayla Davidson and President-Elect Natalie Avant, were so moved by images of hurricane-affected schools that they've organized a campaign to buy interactive Smart Boards and other technology for them. To help, go to www.4schoolsonline.com, enter the school code KEA-SP-HELPS, and shop from the catalog of candles, cookbooks, cards, and other items. Forty percent of the money spent will go to KEA's effort.

As NEA has pledged to raise $1 million, KEA-SP has set its eyes on raising $250,000. "It's an ambitious goal," says  KEA's  student organizer Charles Main. "But that's what the NEA community is about."