I am a teacher at Caldwell Middle School located in Schriever off of Highway 311. This is the fourth school I have had the privilege to teach in. The students and staff here at Caldwell have truly impressed me and I believe the giving spirit of this school needs to be shared with the community.

The community should know what these students from a pre-dominantly low socio-economic background have done to do their part in helping one another, their community, and the world around us. It has been such a joy seeing how the many different school organizations, students, and staff have all worked together to do so much with so little.

After hurricane Katrina we realized that many of our new students who had been displaced were often times isolated and appeared lonely. Our 4-H students created a club called "Clover Pals" and made sure that all displaced students from the flooded areas were invited. The only goal of the club is to meet once per week to socialize, play games, participate in art activities, or more specifically...have fun! The students wanted to make their new peers feel welcomed and give them a positive experience they could look forward to each week. It has been a great success.

Immediately following hurricane Rita, Operation Move, the after school program, began a school wide effort collecting cleaning supplies to help the clean up efforts in the lower portions of Terrebonne Parish. There were boxes upon boxes of cleaning supplies donated to victims of hurricane Rita in Terrebonne Parish.

Locally, the staff at Caldwell made a collective decision to donate 10% of this year's proceeds from our annual fundraiser to Grand Caillou Elementary School to help them with their efforts to recover from the losses suffered as a result of hurricane Rita.

During Thanksgiving the 4-H and Operation Move worked together on a food Drive that provided 3 families with a hefty load of groceries to fill their cupboards and included donated Turkeys. There was so much food brought in that we delivered about 10 boxes to a local church to make sure that the resources were extended to others in need.

During the months of November and December the students collected over 350 bottles of shampoo and conditioner. These bottles will be placed into "Hope Boxes" to provide future families who suffer a disaster with the basic necessities that Katrina victims said were most needed and hard to find in the immediate days following the disaster. They will continue to collect items in the months to come.

With the holidays, students are also concerned about the many children who are not in a position to receive many gifts this holiday season. Caldwell did three things to help make a difference. For a period of time, gifts were collected just to be donated to children who suffered losses in Grand Isle, then toys were collected for the Toys for Tots organization, and finally students brought in their own donations and collected over 800 dollars to donate to Toys for Tots.  

This is a lot of giving from a community that has many needs of its own. It just goes to show that know matter where we come from, we are all capable of bettering this world in some way. This school has shown that by working together the small gifts of individuals add up to great gifts for others.

Information provided by Tami Lemire, 6th Grade PE, 4-H Co-Sponsor
Caldwell Middle School