I left a couple of detailed posts on the Housing thread about how people can specifically provide help to the evacuated families who will be stranded in the Alexandria area for the next month. As reported by both KALB Newschannel 5 and the Alexandria Town Talk newspaper, the Rapides Parish Coliseum has just been opened as a shelter for this purpose, as more and more evacuees are being forced to check out of their motel rooms both here and in neighboring Avoyelles Parish.
The Rapides Parish School Board has instructed parents to register their children in our local schools on a temporary basis, but most likely these families left their public school uniforms and classroom supplies at home before embarking on the evacuation journey, never suspecting they'd be away from home this long.
If you would like to help these families with the added financial burden of replacing lost uniforms and supplies, here is the link to the School Board which will give you detailed information on what the children need in order to attend school in this area:
http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/
For those of you who don't live in Louisiana, please understand that it costs quite a bit of money to send children to public school here. First of all, you have to buy uniforms (typically white short-sleeved polo shirts and trousers with belt loops in either khaki or navy, and a belt) in addition to the usual children's wardrobe of underwear, socks and rubber-soled shoes. Thrifty Alexandria/Pineville moms get these items second-hand at the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores, but they can also be purchased new at Wal-Mart and JC Penney stores, with a lesser selection also available at Target. Clothing vouchers and gift certificates would be of tremendous help to these kids right now.
Louisiana families are required to foot the bill for *all* their classroom supplies, everything from pencils and notebooks to cans of Lysol and paper towels, and you never know when the teacher will send home a note telling you it's time to replenish the class's inventory of these items. And if that's not enough, you still have to pay an additional "instructional fee" for supplies, even though you've already purchased everything on the list they publish before the start of the school year. Alexandria is not an affluent community, so imagine the burden this cash outlay places on the low-income families already living here, let alone the thousands of refugee families arriving from the southern parishes. Keep in mind that because school starts much earlier in Louisiana than up North, all of these families had already gone to the expense of buying school uniforms and classroom supplies before the disaster hit, so they certainly can't afford to replace them all over again while they're displaced from their homes.
For all the people who posted that they wanted to open their homes or assist in some other way, I can't think of a better thing to do than help these children get prepared to attend their new schools here in Rapides Parish. Please give it serious consideration.
It's way past my bedtime -- pleasant dreams to all and prayers to everyone in Katrina's wake. See you tomorrow!
That is a wonderful idea. Thank you for the suggestion, and thanks too for your continued local updates. Very much appreciated.
We have old uniforms that fit the bill (navy pants and white polos). I wish I could send them to the schools.
It would also be a good school project to send school supplies to the hurricane area.
I'm sure my kids would love to send supplies to the kids in the hurricane area.
Thanks for the school information. Don't you think they could suspend the uniform rules for refugees? Looks like school started, August 16th. Like you said, the supplies were bought and now lost.
I'll see what I can come up with, however the school boards should have some compassion on these children and parents, who have lost everything.