Helping after Hurricane Harvey

Local schools like Russellville Elementary and Phil Campbell High School have already been accepting and sending donations to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey, but now the entire Russellville City Schools system is making an effort to provide relief to those victims – and the community is invited to take part in lending a helping hand.

Superintendent Heath Grimes has organized for RCS to “adopt” the Lumberton Independent School District in Lumberton, Texas.

“I feel like our community will feel more connected and more comfortable donating if they know where exactly their support is going,” Grimes said.

Lumberton is a smaller city about an hour east of Houston, closer to the Louisiana border.

Local parent Brandi Barnett asked Grimes how the school system could get involved with the relief efforts and suggested they help some of the smaller cities that aren’t getting as much attention, Grimes said. He then came up with the idea to “adopt” a school district to help individually.

“Brandi texted me with the district information, and once I spoke with them and heard their story, I knew we had to help them,” Grimes said.

When Grimes spoke with Gretchen Scoggins, special events coordinator for the LISC, she informed him that their school itself was in good condition but that more than half of their teachers and families of the students had lost everything in the storm.

Grimes said he decided that the best way to help would be to take up monetary donations that will be used to purchase gift cards to be given out individually to those affected by this tragedy.

“I got the feeling that theirs is a community similar to Russellville. They love their school and their district and have great school pride,” he said.

Students can donate by giving money to their teachers. Parents can donate money directly to their child’s school office or to the main office at the Russellville Board of Education. Grimes encouraged community members, including those who aren’t involved in the school system, to donate at the main office as well.

Grimes said he plans to send the first donation Monday Sept. 11 and said that the donations should continue on for at least a couple of more weeks.

“Our goal is to impact the students, the community and the world in a real way,” he said. “What better way to do that than to help impact another community?”

He has also requested that the schools incorporate this chance to give back into their lesson plans because he wants the children to be strong academically but also be compassionate and contributing members of society.