GUILDERLAND — The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina is being answered with a ground swell of fund-raisers and contributions.

Local schools, intent on instilling in their students values such as caring and helping others, are part of the ground swell of support.
"Our community has always been very generous," said Gregory Aidala, superintendent of the Guilderland schools.

He said various fund-raisers had netted over $13,000 for tsunami relief during the last school year and then he reeled off a list of current programs underway to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Guilderland Elementary School, he said, is holding bake sales to raise funds; at Farnsworth Middle School, students in an Animal Protection Society have organized a drive to help pets displaced by the hurricane; Westmere Elementary School is "adopting" a Gulf Coast school; and proceeds from a faculty concert will go to the Red Cross for hurricane relief.
One mother is upset, though, by what she sees as a lack of support from the district. Rose Levy started a campaign to send "gently used children’s books" to the Gulf Coast and wanted to send notice of the campaign home from school with Guilderland students.

Levy wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor this week complaining that Aidala had not allowed her to do so.
"I have five kids," Levy told The Enterprise on Monday. "I have a couple of bags of books I usually send to Albany." She mentioned the idea of sending the books instead to children hurt by the hurricane and her children "thought it was great," she said.
She calls the campaign "Operation Lend a Hand, Send a Book."

In her letter, Levy chastises Aidala and also the acting high-school principal for not allowing the flyers to be distributed through the schools.

When The Enterprise asked Aidala about the matter, he referred to a policy the school board adopted in November of 2004 on the distribution of "backpack mail," the flyers that students bring home from school in their backpacks.
"With the advanced approval from the superintendent of schools or designee," the policy states, "information concerning activities, events, programs and other opportunities of interest to children and their families...may be distributed to students provided that the activity, event, program or opportunity is conducted or sponsored by an agency of federal, state or local government, or by a not-for-profit group that can furnish documentation as a nonprofit organization by the Internal Revenue Service."
Aidala stressed, "Our policy on backpack mail says it has to be an organization or agency, not an individual."

Regulations that supplement the policy outline the steps an organization must take; all requests are to be submitted to the superintendent’s office for approval a week before the distribution date.
School principals do not make the decision, said Aidala; he does. "Harry Truman would be proud," he said in reference to the President’s famed desk sign, stating, "The buck stops here."
Aidala added of Levy’s proposal, "We’re not saying it can’t be done. It just needs to be coordinated with a group, like the PTA....We applaud these types of efforts in the community, but there needs to be an organized plan or approach.
He said, for example, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) is serving as "a clearinghouse for used textbooks and equipment" from local districts that want to donate to the relief effort.
Aidala concluded, "As a school district, we’re more than willing to work with the community. That’s why we allow backpack mail in the first place...Our students and families will be involved in many different fund-raisers in the months ahead."

"Send a Book"

Levy told The Enterprise on Monday she was unaware a policy on backpack mail existed.

She has not let the district’s refusal stymie her efforts, though.
"It’s taken off like you wouldn’t believe," Levy said. Other families and then organizations joined in. "We have been going to the neighborhoods directly, our children on their bikes and scooters, handing out the flyers," she wrote. "Private schools, sports groups, churches, businesses, have gotten involved."

As of Monday, over 4,600 used books had been collected and Levy expects to double that number.

She said that donations from the Postal Carriers Union, from a private shipping company, and from individuals will help pay for shipping the books.

She looked on-line to find places to ship the books; they will go to shelters and schools, some of which lost their entire libraries, she said.

Kids have been volunteering their time, collecting and sorting books, at a storefront on Western Avenue.
"I’m a lover of books," concluded Levy. "My kids love books. We have a houseful. The idea is to give every child a book, something to call their own, something that will give them an escape from what they've gone through."

School projects

The campaign at Farnsworth Middle School to help abandoned and displaced pets got underway Sept. 14 when students in the school’s Guilderland Animal Protection Society asked others to bring in photographs of their pets from home.
Several teachers donned dog costumes, donated by Capital Costumes, to greet morning buses and to urge students to "help my friends," said a release from the district.

For a dollar donation, the pictures were displayed on a centrally-located school bulletin board. Over $200 were raised in the first two days.

All of the money is being sent to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
At Westmere Elementary School, Aidala said, a "Giving Tree" bulletin board in the front lobby displays a photo of Bakerfield Elementary School, adopted by Westmere Elementary.

Bakerfield Elementary is located in Baker, Louisiana, about 90 miles outside of New Orleans.
"The principal of Bakerfield, Mr. Cook, informed us that, since the hurricane, their school district has enrolled 700 new students displaced as a result of the tragedy," the Westmere Student Council wrote in a letter home to parents. "We asked him how we could help and he sent us a list of all the items that these students need."

The items, ranging from crayons to uniforms, are listed on the leaves of the Giving Tree and, once donated, will be shipped to Bakerfield elementary
"Westmere is so excited to be ‘adopting’ this school that so desperately needs our help," wrote the Westmere Student Council.