The floods caused by Hurricane Harvey have been devastating to Texas cities along the coast, so Timber Creek and its feeder schools are looking to help out students in need.
Timber Creek High School and its falcon feeder schools are teaming up to help out the students of Mayde Creek High School in Katy ISD affected by the floods of Hurricane Harvey, in a donation drive called Falcon Fury SOS (Schools Outfitting Schools). The goal of the project is to make an impact in the area once the hurricane subsides and the community is back to their regular routines.
Jamie Bird, an English teacher at Timber Creek, is helping alongside faculty members to make the donation drive happen. “The drive will lessen the burdens of school districts’ administrators, teachers, parents, and students [by providing] needed supplies in order to continue providing an adequate education after a natural disaster,” Bird explained through an email.
Donations of backpacks, stainless steel water bottles, and miscellaneous school supplies will be accepted and given to the students of Mayde Creek. With the help of the donations, the high school students will be able to smoothly transition back to learning and resume the 2017-2018 school year.
Donations for the cause will be accepted from Sept. 1 through Sept. 21 at Timber Creek High School. Donations are expected to be delivered on Sept. 23.
Within the promotional flyer, the SOS organizers described how students and the community can help:
Here’s how you can help:
Donate a sturdy, supportive, high school appropriate BACKPACK [$15 – $40]
Donate a “basic supply bag”: a package of mechanical pencils; a package of ball point pens (blue, black, red); 2 highlighters; 3 spiral notebooks; 3 folders with brads and pockets; 1 composition notebook; a 2” 3-ring binder with a package of dividers; a package of loose-leaf, college-ruled notebook paper, a pencil case that fits in binder [$25]
Donate a 2017—18 school year planner/calendar [$15]
Donate a stainless steel water bottle [$10 – $20]
Cathy Reeves, a coach and English teacher at Timber Creek taught and coached at Mayde Creek from 1994 – 2002, when the school was fairly new to Katy ISD. “I found out about their need for our help through Facebook contacts of former students,” Reeves revealed through an email.
Reeves isn’t the only Timber Creek administrator affected by the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. Greg Janda, a journalism teacher and advisor to the Timber Creek Talon and TCTV classes was affected as well. Janda used to attend school in Katy ISD, and has family that lives in the flooded area.
“I went to school in Katy ISD for middle and high school. The junior high I went to was flooded in this storm. The high school I attended was used as a shelter,” Janda revealed. “My family is still in the area and has been helping each other during all this. While my family is okay, I have friends in the area who’ve lost everything and I can tell right now that the area where I used to drive is a river rather than a road. Knowing that some of these families have lost everything is heartbreaking.”
Although there’s flood damage to be fixed and houses to be rebuilt, the Timber Creek community is hoping to make any difference that they can.
“The donation drive is one way we’re helping. We’re not going to raise the millions of dollars needed to repair all of the damage,” Janda explained. “But if we can show Mayde Creek that Timber Creek, hundreds of miles away, cares about them and wants them to succeed after this, hopefully we’ll have helped in a special way.”
