Beach Elementary aids in Haiti crisis
Beach Elementary School is collecting childrens’ shoes for Haiti. The activity is among the efforts by many participants from Lee County Public Schools helping out with the crisis in Haiti.
According to Beach Elementary Administrative Secretary Renee Mulloy, the shoe drive fundraiser is organized by the Dominican Republic Outreach Program at Florida Gulf Coast University, a student run service learning program. If interested in contributing good-conditioned shoes for the cause, you can drop them off at the elementary school before Feb. 17. That is when the FGCU student organization is expected to pick up the shoes.
“We decided as a staff to do it and put it in our newsletter,” said Mulloy. “I had three boxes of shoes after just sending an email out to the staff. If someone wants to drop off shoes, just make sure their in a bag or other container.”
Aida Saldivar, the student organizer from FGCU, sent a county-wide email to schools asking for help in collecting used shoes. In the email, he mentioned shoe sizes should be in age 5 to 18 demographic range.
He also wrote: “The children here walk barefoot on the city’s mountainous garbage dump scavenging through the rubble of waste for items of value. As you can imagine, this dump breeds infection and disease. Shoes are rare in this community.”
According to Joe Donzelli from Lee County Public Schools Communications Department, schools and departments across the school district began to mobilize to help those affected by this tragedy almost immediately after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti.