Shortly after hurricane Katrina I heard on the news that the first school had reopened in Gulfport, Mississippi. I asked Brent Farmer at Charlesbridge Publishing to send me to visit St. James Elementary School. He didn't hesitate to agree. He also offered to send a few cases of books. That got me thinking that maybe the students in my hometown of Natick, Massachusetts might also be willing to send books for me to bring along. The effort was called "Books for Biloxi". Natick students were asked to donate books with a well-wishing note enclosed in each. Through amazing efforts by students, townspeople, parents, PTO's, educators, charity groups, the Morse Institute Library, Natick businesses, and the Natick UPS Store, thousands and thousands of books were collected, packed and shipped to Gulfport and Biloxi Public Schools. It was a total community effort. My son, Louis agreed to come with me. We visited St. James Elementary School. The teacher's described us as, "comic relief". Louis played the piano and I showed ridiculous slides of my house, family and pets. Then, we picked up cases of books that were shipped from Natick to the sheriff's office in Hattisburg, Mississippi and found Nancy Hunter, a teacher from Biloxi who was very happy to receive them! We were told that the books that Natick sent were the only books the schools would have upon reopening. We saw such indescribable devastation. At one point Louis looked at me and asked, "How can wind bend metal and destroy brick buildings?" One parent had told me that the storm was so massive that the night of the storm the barometric pressure dropped so low that they had trouble catching their breath. Two schools on the Biloxi Peninsula were simply gone. All schools along the coast had at least 20 inches of water in them. But just as I wasn't surprised at the outpouring of goodwill from Natick, I also wasn't surprised at the resiliency of the children of the Gulf Coast. Children bounce back. They do this because the adults deal with the tragedy with positive attitudes. They cry, then move forward. To look at the surroundings I questioned how our southern neighbors could ever recover... but after talking to the people, I knew everything would eventually be okay. Be assured that if we were in the same situation they would be there for us.  A fourth grade teacher commented that the way these children would recover was through the arts. "They will write about it, and draw it."  I often think of that statement. Louis and I had an unforgettable journey. We are proud of being from a generous community. Looking back, we both feel like it's almost a privilege to feel that we might have made a bit of a difference.

Books For Biloxi