BELGREEN – When the deadly tornado ripped through Phil Campbell on April 27 and demolished the high school’s band room and destroyed much of the rest of the school, the student council at Belgreen High School knew they wanted to help their fellow county school recover somehow.

The students and their sponsor, Nikki Tutich, brainstormed and finally came up with the idea to sell T-shirts that would express their support and raise money for the PCHS students at the same time.

“We started getting organized the week after the tornado came through,” said Tiffany Seal, who served as the student council president for 2010-2011. “We just wanted to do what we could to help.”

The shirts the BHS student council sold had the phrase “Working as one to rebuild Franklin County for the future” on the back and the phrase pretty much summed up the way BHS and many other people in the community felt about the relief efforts.

“The kids just felt bad for what all the students affected by the tornado were going through,” Tutich said. “I was proud of the initiative they took to sell the shirts and raise money for those schools to help them get back on their feet.”

Tutich said they ultimately decided to include Hackleburg in the donation since the school was hit hard by the tornado as well and is close to Franklin County.

The BHS student council ended up raising $8,876.55 that they used to buy books for the schools’ libraries; a portable audiometer that checks students’ hearing for the county school system’s nurses to use that will benefit PCHS and PCES; an automated external defibrillator (AED) for PCHS because theirs was damaged by the tornado; and 25 different titles of concert band music for the PCHS band since all their music was destroyed.

“We hope the schools will get good use out of all these items,” Tutich said. “We’ve delivered the music already and we’ll be delivering the rest of the books and supplies to the schools soon.

“We’re glad we were able to do what we could to help.”