By MIchelle Martin
Staff Writer

On Aug. 28, Jeaneria Petty was on the phone with her son, Baque, in St. Bernard Parish, La. Petty, a volunteer at St. Ailbe School on the South Side, urged her son to leave with his fiancée, Grace Herbert, and her 14-year-old son, Joshua.

Now Joshua is one of seven students from the hurricane-affected area enrolled at St. Ailbe. So far, he seems to be adjusting well, Petty said.

Some of the other students are having a harder time, said Stephanie Clausell, the site administrator at St. Ailbe. One preschool student had never attended school before--he was scheduled to start preschool in New Orleans this fall--and separating from his family after leaving his home has been hard, Clausell said. Older students have expressed concerns about the friends they left behind.

“They say they don't know where their friends are,” she said.

But the other students have welcomed the newcomers, who began arriving in classes Sept. 6 and kept coming for a week after that. How long they'll stay, Clausell doesn't know.

“Nobody really knows what's going to happen,” she said.

To show support, the school held a special collection for hurricane relief during its regular Sept, 15 school Mass, and students sponsored a car wash Sept. 24 to raise money.

In the meantime, Catholic schools in the archdiocese joined other area schools in welcoming students who were displaced by the storm. In accordance with the Illinois State Board of Education, schools suspended the requirements for proof of immunizations and eligibility for free and reduced-price meals. The Office for Catholic Schools also began posting information about Catholic school teachers and administrators from the affected areas who were looking for employment in the Chicago area.

More than 30 archdiocesan elementary and high schools welcomed at least 90 displaced students. Some have come north without their parents and are living with relatives, said Dorothy Aebersold, principal at St. Theresa School in Palatine.

Petty’s family might be better off than some. They are staying in an apartment that was vacant, offered free of charge by a parishioner.

Baque, a 43-year-old oil rigger, was reluctant to leave before the storm, his mother said.

“He said, ‘Mom, where would we go?’” Petty said. “I said, ‘Follow the cars. Don’t go east, and don’t go southwest. Go straight north.”

She prevailed, and the three packed a couple of days worth of clothes, some pillows and blankets and a few cans of food and headed to Jackson, Miss.—a trip that took eight hours, four times what it usually takes.

When they got there, there was no electricity, and the word was no hotel rooms were to be had south of Memphis. When Baque Petty checked in with his mother, she told him to get the oil changed in the car and head to Chicago.

“At first, they didn’t want to come so far, because they thought the water would go down in a few days and they could go back,” she said. “But from what I had seen on the news, I didn’t think that was going to happen.”

By the time the group arrived in Chicago Aug. 31, it was clear they would not be able to return to the Gulf area for months.

“From what we’ve seen on TV, St. Bernard Parish has been destroyed,” Jeaneria Petty said.

Now Joshua is one of seven students from five families who were displaced by Katrina and have enrolled at St. Ailbe School on the South Side of Chicago.

By mid-September, 36 Catholic elementary and high schools reported more than $75,000 collected for Hurricane Katrina victims, and many more are participating in the National Catholic Education Association’s “Child to Child” campaign, which asks Catholic school students to donate $1 for school supplies and other educational needs in affected areas.

Several schools held “out-of-uniform” or dress-down days, collecting thousands of dollars for relief efforts.

Others held special collections, including:

• At St. Alphonsus Liguori School in Prospect Heights, student council leaders and faculty held a collection Sept. 2 that gathered more than $3,400. Segerdahl Corp. of Wheeling matched the total amount contributed.
• Students at Queen of the Rosary School in Elk Grove Village were asked “Can You Spare a $1”? The campaign asked each child to bring $1 to be donated to Catholic Charities. The first day brought in over $1,200, and by the end topped $3,000. Students also organized a “personal care” collection for shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, diapers, baby shampoo.
  
• u Ascension School in Oak Park, with a strong affiliation with Ursuline sisters who staffed the school until 1985, is raising funds to support Ursuline schools in Shreveport, La.
• Families at Cardinal Bernardin Early Childhood Center in Chicago are working with one of the school’s grandparents and “Veterans for Peace,” donations were being sent by truck to families in Covington, La.
• The student council at Cardinal Joseph Bernardin School in Orland Hills is selling bracelets inscripted with “CJB Cares,” with funds going to Catholic Charities, American Red Cross and PADS. The faculty and staff donated paper goods, silverware and more for the Tinley Park Shelter.
• Teachers and students at St. Catherine-St. Lucy School in Oak Park are “adopting” families in a shelter at St. Martin de Porres Parish as they move from temporary housing in Chicago to more permanent housing.
  
• An eighth-grader at St. Cyprian School in River Grove first made sure her Louisiana relatives were safe, then took it upon herself to find out what her school could do. She called her grandmother’s pastor at St. Anthony Parish in Natchitoches, La., who accepted the $874.87 collected at St. Cyprian’s opening Mass and other donations.
• Students at St. Edward School in Chicago were writing letters to people in shelters in the Gulf area. The letters were to be delivered by the son of a school aide who works for America’s Second Harvest.
• Fourth- through 12-graders at Ss. Faith Hope and Charity in Winnetka played a continuous volleyball game Sept. 10 and raised $13,000 through sponsorship. The game culminated with a rosary and Mass. All funds will go to Catholic Charities U.S.A. Matching funds up to $25,000 have been pledged.
• Families from St. Gilbert School in Grayslake have adopted an evacuee family with two children to provide items needed to start their new home.
• St. Gregory the Great High School in Chicago had volunteers sorting and labeling donated items for Catholic Charities to the music of New Orleans blues played over the public address system. The high school served as a collection point for donations from several parishes and schools.
• St. James School in Arlington Heights is working with the Sisters of the Living Word who have a mission in Mississippi and are receiving people on their way to other destinations. Students are collecting phone and gas cards.

First-graders at St. Juliana School in Chicago decided to look for “found money” to help the hurricane victims. Money found in sofa cushions, on the playground, in parents’ cars, or in the parking lot was brought into school and placed in a box on the classroom prayer table. After two weeks they used their math and calculator skills to count the money and announced that they had collected $41.38

Notre Dame High School for boys raised more than $4,000 to support relief efforts. At their first home football game over 2,000 strands of Mardi Gras beads were given to those who donated a minimum of $1.

ina Dominican, members of the school community can sponsor members of the swim team to raise money during swimming practices.

Student volunteers from Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart, Lake Forest, coordinated a drive to collect supplies for a relief truck sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, filling a Woodlands Wildcat bus with bottled water, food and baby supplies that will be delivered to the evacuees in Houston. The Woodlands Service Club is also collecting cash contributions for hurricane survivors. An anonymous Woodlands parent has offered a challenge grant to match the total amount of relief funds raised.

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