WURTLAND — Nicky Reeves wants to cry when he sees pictures of children in Haiti outside their ruined homes.
Noah Bailey wants to send a billion dollars to the earthquake-ravaged island nation.
His bank account isn’t quite that fat, but since one of their teachers returned from a trip to help with disaster relief in Haiti, Noah and most of the other students at Wurtland Middle School are sending more than a few dollars for earthquake relief.
They have started a donation drive and challenged other school districts to chip in. The challenge has been successful: Russell, Boyd County and Ashland all are participating.
“Seeing the kids’ faces makes you want to give at least a billion dollars, but you give what you can,” Noah said.
“It’s really bad. It’s worse than I thought it would be. It makes you want to cry,” Nicky said.
The pictures that make him and his classmates so sad were taken by sixth-grade social studies teacher David Stuart, who returned late last week from 10 days of relief work in Haiti. Stuart, whose parents operate a mission and orphanage near the southern seacoast, unloaded freighters, guided planes and helicopters at the airport, and ferried supplies to the mission.
His parents’ mission, Hands and Feet Children’s Village, was mostly undamaged, but trips inland to a sister mission took him through towns and over roads that were damaged almost beyond repair.
His photos show roads blocked by room-sized boulders and riddled with cracks so deep that locals stuck in tree branches to mark them. They show houses and public buildings shattered into rubble and makeshift roadside vegetable stands put up by islanders trying to get back to work.
There are photos of Stuart and local workers slinging medical supplies in a human chain from freighter to truck, and pictures of curious children, many of them left homeless by the earthquake.
While he was gone, staffers at Wurtland mulled over ideas for helping the cause, said Emily Stephenson, coordinator of the school’s family resource center. The donation drive caught on immediately with the students, who have been more than generous, she said.
The school’s Community Problem Solving team members took on the job of coordinating the drive at Wurtland. They have been setting up a table during the lunch period with a jar for donations, said team member Emily Munn, a seventh-grader.
They took in $72 Tuesday and $96 Wednesday, most of it from students.
It wasn’t just nickels and dimes, Emily said. She saw a lot of folding money, ones and fives, in the jar.
Hearing about the disaster from one of their own teachers puts it in sharp relief. “It’s really devastating. We talk about it in class,” Emily said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.
Local News
Related Photos
-
Kevin Goldy
Discussion
Fundraiser challenge
Area schools join forces to aid Haiti
- Local News
-
-
Putnam restoration gets additional $50K
The Putnam Stadium Restoration Foundation got a $50,000 boost from The Woodlands Foundation.
-
Kentucky schools get waiver on No Child Left Behind
Kentucky and nine other states received waivers Thursday from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, in exchange for putting their own improved accountability systems in place.
-
Sweet harmony
Many women all over the world travel miles every week, just to sing with a barbershop chorus.
-
Bankruptcy filings: 2/10/12
Bankruptcy filings in the Eastern District of U.S. Bankruptcy Court include the following:
-
Russell Independent School District
A new gym floor at Russell High School will cost somewhere between $71,000 and $107,000, school board members learned Thursday.
-
Workers reject contract offer
Hourly workers at Marathon Petroleum’s Catlettsburg refinery on Wednesday rejected a contract offer from the company.
-
UW campaign tops $780,000
While the economy of this region continues to struggle, the people of northeastern Kentucky again proved this is a caring and giving area by easily surpassing the ambitious $750,000 for the 2011 campaign of the United Way of Northeast Kentucky.
-
LRC plans to appeal judge’s ruling
The leadership of the General Assembly announced Thursday it plans to appeal Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s ruling that the legislature’s plan to re-draw state legislative boundaries is unconstitutional.
-
School personnel pleased to be in ‘unprecedented’ territory with snow days
Mid-February usually is the time when school administrators start worrying about how many days they will have to tack on to the end of the year to make up for the ones missed because of snow.
-
Opposition to planned sewer extension
The Boyd County Fiscal Court could be removing $60,000 in grant money after complaints about the sewer project it would have funded.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Putnam restoration gets additional $50K
Obama Scraps Birth Control Mandate
US Airmen's Killer Sentenced to Life in Germany
Navy Names Ship for Gabrielle Giffords
Raw Video: Deadly Blasts in Syria
Romney Slams President Obama at CPAC
Gingrich: Pres. Obama 'waging War on Religion'
5 Killed in Wrong-way Crash on I-10 in La.
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
Ga Girl Fights Off Kidnapper at Walmart
