Students raise funds to help students, teachers after Ike
Sims Elementary School in Bridge City, Texas once was a welcoming brick and mortar primary school. That changed after Hurricane Ike struck on September 13 and pummeled the building with a brutal storm surge accompanied by four and a half feet of salty flood water which left behind a thick layer of dangerous black sludge. The storm was so devastating that Ike effectively left the structure uninhabitable. As it stands today Sims Elementary School is now a collection of temporary modular units joined by decks and canopies; a far cry from the warm center of kindergarten through fifth grade learning it was just months ago. Teachers who lost everything – tools, technologies, curriculums, even personal effects – are starting from scratch making a best effort to give students the education that they are entitled to and so badly need as an escape during this difficult time.
Further stressing both students and educators alike in the area serviced by Sims Elementary is the fact that 95% of the 1,200 households received damage by the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States. Auburn Executive MBA student Kristie Barton, a Distribution Manager for Mississippi Power, recognized the need for assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike as a result of her experience with Hurricane Katrina. Immediately following the storm Kristie created a plan of action in which she searched for a school in need of financial help and raised funds with the help of her classmates to adopt that school. The group of 57 Executive Master of Business Administration students, who are located in professional positions across the country and around the world, created the “Auburn EMBA Class of 2010 Hurricane Relief Fund”. To date, the fund has raised $3,405 for the traumatized elementary school.
It seems that the Auburn EMBA’s have sparked a fever of helping damaged schools to return to normalcy as firms connected to students in the program are starting to get involved as well. Some have adopted individual children and provided Christmas presents while others have sent school supplies to institutions in need.
Kent Broussard, Principal of Sims Elementary praised the help given by the students claiming that it allowed the school to purchase “the things that make elementary school fun.” Donated monies were chiefly used to purchase classroom supplies such as cutting boards, laminators, die cuts, paper and bulletin boards.
Ms. Barton could hardly contain her excitement for the support given by her classmates stating that “it truly speaks to the character and to the ethical moral fiber that is engrained into the students participating in Auburns EMBA class.”