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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 21, 2005 From left, Debbie Satterfield, Anne Adderson and Dee Ann Harris recount some of their experiences from traveling to Houston to help set up a temporary school for kids evacuated from the Gulf Coast. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Teachers go to Houston Three Medford women help set up a temporary elementary school in Texas for displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune Medford teacher Anne Adderson and several of her friends wanted to do more than just write a check to help the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. They wanted to physically do something to support the evacuees and the school officials helping them settle in to new lives. So last week, Adderson, who teaches fifth grade at Abraham Lincoln Elementary, former teacher Dee Ann Harris and retired Social Security Administration worker Debbie Satterfield headed to Houston to help launch a temporary elementary school. Houston Independent School District had reopened Ryan Elementary, a school that had been closed for more than a year, to serve displaced students. Adderson saw news accounts of the efforts and tried to contact officials. When she made no headway through the official channels, she started contacting teachers in the district through e-mail listed on school Web sites and was soon directed to people who were coordinating volunteer efforts. Advertisement Within days the Medford trio was on its way to Texas. Harris called 26 hotels to find rooms. A friend reserved a rental car for them to pick up upon arrival in Houston. Co-workers from throughout the Medford School District donated $3,300 for school supplies. The three women, friends who met because their 15-year-old daughters are lifelong buddies, arrived in Houston Sept. 11, ready to help the teachers and counselors the Houston school district had hired. School buses delivered Houston’s children to school, then gathered displaced children from shelters, including the George R. Brown Convention Center, to bring them to Ryan Elementary at 9:45 a.m. Monday to start the day with breakfast. "There were kids crying and sucking their thumbs," Adderson said. "They were just physically exhausted." Youngsters told of sleepless nights in noisy shelters and long lines for showers. While Adderson and Harris helped little ones open packets of cereal, Satterfield, with her office experience, was drafted into service as the school secretary. Throughout their week volunteering, they made daily trips through Houston’s heat, humidity and traffic to Wal-Mart for backpacks, school supplies, shoes, socks and underwear and to Barnes & Noble for books the kids could read at school and take with them. They distributed the items out of the school library. "It was heart-wrenching, but very rewarding," Satterfield said of the trip. "We felt indebted that they let us be part of this," Adderson said, of those they helped. Six of the temporary school’s 24 teachers, who were themselves displaced by the storm, particularly touched the three Medford women. "Their need was incredible, but these people were still giving," Harris said. Harris, Satterfield and Adderson decided that when they got back to Medford Sept. 17, they wanted to continue directly helping one of the teachers, Danielle Johnson, they had met at the temporary school. Johnson was an assistant principal in New Orleans and her husband was a teacher. The couple and their three girls, ages 4, 15, and 17, lost everything and are now living in a shelter apartment in Houston. Harris, Satterfield and Adderson have established the Danielle Johnson Fund at US Bank; donations can be made at any branch. All money will go to the Johnson family as they rebuild their lives, Harris said. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail Teachers go to Houston ">[email protected] . Retired educator helps out at a Houston shelter The chance to make a difference in children’s lives was why B.J. Reed became a teacher and it was the reason the now-retired educator went to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees last week with a San Francisco-based nonprofit that promotes writing skills as a key to success. Reed, who taught at both North and South Medford high schools before retiring in 1999, went with nonprofit 826 Valencia to work at a shelter in Houston’s Reliant Center. She was the only Oregon resident on an 18-member team of tutors from across the country that provided children’s activities for displaced youngsters. From a set of tables near a Red Cross help station, Reed and her fellow 826 volunteers handed out writing materials, art supplies and books. They read and played with the kids and even offered homework help for students who had started class at temporary schools. From the littlest children who needed help to record their stories in construction paper booklets to teens starting new journals, all the youngsters seemed to enjoy the break from chaos they found in writing, Reed said. "I’m very glad I could do it," she said. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztechmedia Website Hosting Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy online casino Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Reservationstogo Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Natto Kinase Nattokinase Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Advertisement s