School Supplies Reach Grammar School Hurricane Victims

Mississippi school children in the hurricane-ravaged area of Bay St. Louis received an early holiday gift thanks in part to NRCS volunteers who traveled nearly 1,000 miles one way to deliver a donated bookmobile bus filled with computers, textbooks, binders, and other school supplies.

Alpha, Illinois, volunteer Charles Curry is with the NRCS Interstate Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council. He made the journey to present the bus keys and title to Mississippi-based volunteers then hand out new book bags and other items to students at the Second Street Elementary School in Bay St. Louis.

“The kids were thrilled. They opened up those boxes right away,” said Curry, “That made me feel good, and I knew that the bus and supplies were really going be an asset for them.”

“Under normal circumstances, Interstate RC&D improves the quality of life in northwestern Illinois and eastern Iowa communities through conservation, economic development, and other projects,” said NRCS’s Illinois State Conservationist Bill Gradle, “But these are not normal circumstances.”

As their premiere education project, Interstate RC&D volunteers had used a converted school bus, called the SMART Bus, to deliver free books and educational programs. In October, however, the group learned about the challenge of resuming school in the Bay St. Louis-Waveland area. They decided to fill the bus with school supplies and deliver it all to young hurricane victims. A Quad Cities TV station, WQAD out of Moline, IL, rallied the community to donate more than 3,000 boxes of donated items. Volunteers called the effort “Operation Pack the Bus.”

“We just hope the people in Mississippi get as much good out of this bus as we have in Illinois and Iowa,” said Gradle.

The Rock Island Illinois County Board sponsored transportation for the donated bus. On Dec. 5, the bus was loaded onto a semi trailer to make the 2-day trek to southern Mississippi.

“We’re always looking for good things to do, and this is a great thing to do,” said Jim Bohnsack, Rock Island County Board Chair.

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County Board Member Ken Maranda, who also serves on the Interstate RC&D Council, first brought the idea to the county. “We heard how much it would cost the RC&D to rent a truck and trailer,” said Maranda. “The county already had equipment and drivers available, and we were glad Rock Island County could play a leading role in this project.”

The donations were presented to the public through an RC&D group in Mississippi that is bringing together sources of assistance to help communities begin the long and difficult process of recovery in the hurricane’s aftermath.

“Hurricane Katrina destroyed several of our school districts and everything in them,” said Patty Rogers of the Mississippi Coastal Plains RC&D.

“The bus will be used as a temporary library or a temporary classroom for special education students in Pass Christian, and the supplies are going to schools in Waveland,” said Rogers.

Waveland and Pass Christian are small, coastal towns, each with a population of just about 7,000. The infrastructure of the communities was destroyed, including all municipal buildings and educational facilities. In addition, many of the students and faculty of those schools lost their homes and everything in them.

Interstate RC&D is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit volunteer initiative that finds creative ways to benefit education, natural resource management, economic development, and other local priorities. While the USDA-NRCS provides coordination for the initiative, local volunteers lead and carry out RC&D activities.

Your contacts are Mark Jackson, NRCS Interstate RC&D Coordinator, at 309-297-0487, or Jill Rees, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at 217-353-6609.