|
|
|
|
|
Jeanne-Aimee deMarrais of Save the Children directs Allen O’Bryan of Catholic Charities as he deposits a pallet of early childhood education materials in a moving van.
Click on photo for larger view. |
Assembly line: Terre Harris of Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson, Miss., hands materials to Adam Metts of the same volunteer team.
Click on photo for larger view. |
Left to right: Joan
Elder, Beverly Peden, and Veronika Powe
of the Mississippi Early Childhood
Association packed donated art supplies
for early childhood programs hit by
Hurricane Katrina. Click on photo for
larger view. |
Cathy Grace, Ed.D. (left)
posed with volunteers from Save the
Children (left to right): Jeanne-Aimee
deMarrais, Mike Taurus, and Yael
Hoffman. Click on photo for larger view. |
Anthony, a young volunteer with Catholic Charities
of Jackson, Miss., paused to pose with Cathy Grace
(left) of the MSU Early Childhood Institute and
Laura Beth Hebbler, director of the Mississippi Head
Start Collaboration Office, at a Feb. 11, 2006,
workday for early childhood programs hit by
Hurricane Katrina. Click on photo for larger view. |
Volunteers Pack Donated Materials for Inland Mississippi
Programs Hit by Katrina
FEB. 14, 2006 | About
50 volunteers worked through the day Feb. 11 in an unheated
warehouse in Jackson, Miss., to unpack, sort, and repack batches
of books and supplies for inland early childhood programs hit by
Hurricane Katrina last summer.
“It’s mind boggling – everything that has been given and
everything that was lost,” Elaine Owens of Jackson, Miss., said
as she surveyed towering shelves of art supplies, stacked crates
of books, and mounds of new stuffed toy animals.
Volunteers from several Mississippi towns and cities packed
materials into teacher resource kits; assessment kits; and
curriculum materials for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
The volunteers came from Galloway United Methodist Church and
Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson; Pine Lake Baptist
Church in Brandon; First United Methodist Church in Tupelo;
Parkway Heights United Methodist Church in Hattiesburg; and the
Mississippi Early Childhood Association.
Catholic
Charities in Jackson has provided storage space for the
materials.
The donated materials were from children and teachers around the
country as well as from manufacturers, publishers, and
distributors, in response to calls for help from Embrace
Mississippi’s Children, a coalition that formed immediately
after the hurricane to rebuild damaged and destroyed early
childhood programs in Mississippi.
Connie Clay, director of the Rebuilding After Katrina initiative
of the Mississippi State University Early Childhood Institute (ECI),
said the curriculum materials will go to programs in five
counties north of the three hardest-hit counties on the Gulf
Coast. The teacher resource and assessment kits will go to
programs in all eight counties.
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation funded Rebuilding After
Katrina. ECI is coordinating distribution of donated materials
and providing training and technical support to the affected
early childhood programs. The institute will hold a workshop
Feb. 23 for early childhood administrators and teachers in
Harrison County on the coast. The workshop will focus on proper
use of teaching materials already distributed to the Harrison
County programs. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
will provide classroom space for the workshop at its Jefferson
Davis Campus in Gulfport.
Christpher Parton of Tupelo (Miss.) First United
Methodist Church carried boxes of stuffed toy
animals for shipment to early childhood programs.
Click on photo for larger view. |
Connie Clay displays one of many brand-new “big
books” donated by early childhood publishers and
distributors for child care centers damaged by
Hurricane Katrina. Cathy Grace, Ed.D., professor and
director of the Mississippi State University Early
Childhood Institute, helped sort the books at a
volunteer work day Feb. 11, 2006. Click on photo for
larger view. |
46 Blackjack Rd. / P.O. Box 6013
/ Mississippi State, MS / 39762 / tel. 662-325-4836 / fax 662-325-5436
© 2004- Mississippi State University
Updated
11/22/2006
 |
