Dorseyville Middle School Ships Help To School Ravaged By Hurricane Katrina

By Connie Shoemaker

DORSEYVILLE, PA (March 22) The cloudy skies couldn't dampen the excitement in the office of Dorseyville Middle Schools as faculty and The National Character Education Foundation (NCEF) readied more than seventy boxes for the 3:30 pick up by UPS.

Walls were lined with boxes of the offerings of the Middle School donations. Late arrivals such as two flat screened televisions and dvd/vcr players were quickly weighed and labeled. The student council trickled in with last minute donations and quickly found one last box to pack. When UPS arrived the men in brown stood in awe at what the student council and their advisors had accomplished. "Do all these go?" "Was this all donated?" The men sized up the situation than brought in dollies and began the half hour long process of loading the boxes onto the truck.

Packing the last box were the student council advisors who were carefully stuffing the countless letters the kids had written to the students of Henderson Middle School. Last May, the National Character Education Foundation's (NCEF) All Pro Action Team Speaker and New Orleans native Randy Thornton came to Fox Chapel Area School District's Dorseyville Middle School. He addressed the students and mentioned the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in his hometown.

"The Dorseyville students were moved by what they heard and decided they wanted to help out their peers who had been affected by Katrina," said Rox Serrao, principal of Dorseyville Middle School (DMS). "Working with the NCEF,
Thornton contacted Murray Henderson School in New Orleans, and the NCEF then spearheaded the adopt-a-school program," Serrao said.

"The response to this program was amazing," Serrao said. "This is probably one of the best lessons DMS students have learned." The boxes should arrive Tuesday in New Orleans giving Henderson Middle school more than supplies, it will provide the hope and encouragement they need to come back from the blow dealt them by Hurricane Katrina.