Dear Henley Families,
In last week’s Henley Happenings, I shared that a group of sixth grade students had organized a relief drive to support those impacted by Hurricane Florence. A Henley parent, Jay Roberts, contacted me that day to say that his sister lives in New Bern and that she can connect us with a middle school to support directly.
Our students decided to partner with Mr. Roberts and have now created the Hurricane Helpers Backpack Drive to focus their efforts on students in Craven County. Students have lost their homes and their schools have become shelters. Our goal is to send 250 backpacks filled with items that will help them when they return to school.
The students are proposing that families fill a backpack with either school supplies or clothing:
- School supplies include everything a student would need at the start of the school year.
- Clothing could be specifically for a middle school student-shoes, shorts, socks, shirts, etc.
- Other toiletry supplies could be included-a comb, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.
We hope that you will consider helping the students of Craven County. Our drive will run from tomorrow, 24 September to Wednesday, 3 October. Mr. Roberts will load up his trailer full of backpacks and head to North Carolina on Thursday, 4 October.
Backpacks can be dropped off at Henley. It would be a HUGE help if families could put a sticker or label on the backpack indicating its contents and any helpful descriptor (e.g. 7th grade boy, or school supplies for girl, etc.).
We are so pleased to be able to help and hope that you can support our drive. Anything in this case will help. If you’d rather, we’ll accept gift cards or monetary donations. We’ll use the cards and money to fill backpacks before October 3. If you can donate a gently used backpack, trust that it will get filled!
Thank you for your support and let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Beth Costa, Jay Roberts, and the Henley Hurricane Helpers