[SEMCO] [Fwd: A way to contribute/ Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium]]

[Tracey Crago]

A Sea Grant colleague sent this message and I thought it might be 
appropriate for those of us who do workshops and work with educators, 
and who may have some extras sitting on a shelf...

Here is one tangible way to help educators in MS which has a procedure
already set up. Please distribute this message through your message systems.
Read below:

=====================================================

*A way to help school children displaced in Katrina's wake

*There is a great need for school supplies in this area. Some students 
have lost everything and many school districts have taken in hundreds of 
additional students.

We've thought of something easy and inexpensive that folks could do in 
the Sea Grant community that will help displaced school children down 
here.  We know that a lot of people have extra backpacks and message 
bags from various conferences they've been to, and most of them are 
probably sitting in your closets.  There may even be boxes of leftover 
bags, pens, pads, etc. at places where the conferences took place.  We 
know people are burning to help in some way, and here's an inexpensive 
but vitally needed way for you to help. 

*Ship us your extra book bags, backpacks, message bags, pens, etc.  left 
from past conferences, and we'll distribute them from here*.  There are 
displaced children in the schools here in Oxford and in every small town 
in the state that is above the area of the worst damage, and these small 
towns are naturally not getting the help and attention that is going to 
the areas of terrible destruction.  They're falling thru the cracks, 
trying to help, but running their own resources dry trying to help 
evacuees.  They  are in desperate need of many things.  Every little bit 
helps.

We have an empty office that we will be using to collect the supplies. 
We will load the bags full of supplies and distribute them to displaced 
students and school districts throughout the state in the coming weeks 
and months. We are focusing on the messenger bags from conferences, 
because I think that middle school and high school students will be 
happier with a more mature bag.

*We are not asking for programs to purchase supplies*. We simply would 
like to redistribute things that your programs and staff no longer have 
any use for. If you want to send other supplies, we won't turn anything 
away.  If you do send supplies, please try to stick to the following items:

     notebooks (spiral bound or three-hole, any size)
     notebook paper (either wide or narrow ruled)
     construction paper
     crayons (any size box)
     tablets (I'm guessing the very wide ruled, 6 or 7 lines per page 
for first/second graders)
     glue sticks or Elmer's glue
     pencils (#2)
     pens
     markers (any size)
     kleenex in small packets
     backpacks

*Shipping address:
*Sea Grant Law Center
University of Mississippi
Kinard Hall, Room 258 E
University, MS 38677

If you have any questions about our relief efforts, please give 
Stephanie Showalter, Josh Clemons or Waurene Roberson a call at (662) 
915-7775, or email sshowalt at olemiss.edu, jeclemon at olemiss.edu, 
waurene at olemiss.edu.  Our other staff member, Jason Savarese, is down on 
the coast assisting his family with their losses in Biloxi and we are 
not sure how soon he will be able to return. Thank you so much for your 
generosity.

Waurene Roberson
Media Coordinator  (662) 915-7775
National Sea Grant Law Center & MS-AL Sea Grant Legal Program
http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC

The Mississippi Alabama Sea Grant website is back online.  It is hosted at
the University 
of Southern Mississippi, which is in Hattiesburg, a good distance inland 
from the coast.  
http://www.olemiss.edu/orgs/SGLC ).