Dear Friends, 

Exactly one week before Hurricane Helene upended thousands of lives in Pinellas County, I visited Gulf Beaches Elementary School and Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8; beautiful schools with highly capable faculty and committed families. Those two schools were flooded along with thousands of homes and businesses and are out of commission. As they are restored, students will stay with their teachers and their classmates, though be on double session at other schools, impacting those schools in our county as well,

What I am writing you about today is not that though. You can find all of those operational details on the district's website. What I am writing you about is the dozens of teachers and students that I know - and the hundreds that I do not know - who need your help.

Classrooms that were flooded: lost decades of daily materials used for planning and learning, plus innumerable school supplies and personal materials.

Teachers homes: we have teachers who lost their homes due to flooding and still reported to work on Monday to be present for their students that need them. We also have teachers whose lives are so upended they are not sure how they will ever get back into the classroom (thank you all substitute teachers).

Students: their homes, their toys, their school uniforms, books, backpacks, lunch boxes and much much more.

The Pinellas Education Foundation - the best Ed Foundation in the country - has opened their abilities to the Pinellas County Schools family and are working to collect donations and provide the needed support for Classrooms, Teachers and Students.

I am asking you to please consider donating here: https://pinellaseducation.org/helene/

I am working closely with the Education Foundation as well as our son's middle school PTA to affect the greatest relief that I can. As we all learn in life: we cannot do things alone. I need your help. Please donate and/or **if you are local and would like to offer hands-on help with yard/house cleanup, please be in touch with me directly.**