By Anna Beasley, Special to Nighthawk News
Sophomore Taylor Farmer walks up to the school doors with clothes in her hand, the chilly November air tickling her neck. Walking in, she immediately spots the orange box in the rotunda. Dropping the clothes in the box, she knows she has done her part in helping the people in Hatteras.
First Flight’s Friends of Rachel Club sponsored a community-wide warm clothing drive for people who live in Hatteras who suffered losses of homes, cars and belongings during Hurricane Matthew. The members made posters and boxes that coordinated with the class colors for each grade level. Each piece of clothing also counted toward spirit points.
The AVID teacher at FFHS, Lisa Duke, came up with the idea to do the warm clothing drive.
“I was a teacher at Cape Hatteras. I ran into a former colleague who told me about how bad things were down (in Hatteras), and since I recently was flooded out due to the storm, it really tugged at my heart,” Duke said. “I sent out an email to several schools asking for people to consider doing their holiday projects in support of the Cape Hatteras community.”
One of Cape Hatteras Secondary School’s counselors, Karla Smith, gave some insight to all the damage caused by the hurricane.
“Between our elementary and secondary schools, we have eight staff members who had their houses flooded, five of which are still displaced. Many others had minor damage to their house, like myself, but lost their cars to the flood. Some lost all. Many of our students had their houses flooded and some are still displaced,” Smith said. “I know of two of our families at the secondary school who had their homes flooded both in Hermine, a month before Matthew, and then again in Matthew.”
Farmer, who was in the FOR Club last year, felt like this fundraiser was different from past ones.
“I don’t think this is like anything we’ve done before,” Farmer said. “Last year we did the money for Kai-Von (Baxter) and his family and the Lifesavers for Mrs. Danielle (James), but the warm clothing drive is a lot different.”
Farmer also created the GoFundMe page for people in the community to donate money to help. The site raised about $300. Farmer said she was inspired to use GoFundMe after seeing how much money the Outer Banks community raised last year following the death of Bri Blumenthal in a bike accident.
“It seemed to be spread quicker, rather than somebody going to a business, asking for money, and getting shot down,” Farmer said.
School counselor Lisa Wheless, who leads the FOR Club, said she is very happy with what the club was able to do. Nearly 1,800 clothing articles were collected by the FOR Club throughout November and will arrive in Hatteras before Christmas.
“When you get kids involved, whether it’s community service or whether it’s some sort of activity to help others, they rise to the occasion,” Wheless said. “People are quick to say that our youth is self-absorbed, but I don’t see that with the group of kids I have in the FOR Club. I see kids that are eager to make a difference.”
Freshman Anna Beasley wrote this story for her Introduction to Publications project. She can be reached at beasleyan1213@daretolearn.org.
