Mississippi Experiences 6

In mid-October I placed a phone call to the contact I had found for the Bay St Louis Waveland School District. Three of our Williamsburg James City County elementary schools had completed 10 day change drives and raised nearly $7,600 and the Jamestown High School Key Club had promised to donate $400 to bring us to $8,000. We ultimately got a bonus from the Jamestown High School Student Council when they donated over $1,136 to Operation Colonial Friends. Our focus in these change drives had been to assist children who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The funds were originally slated to go to school districts in San Antonio where many New Orleanians, like my sister Rhoda, had evacuated. However, nearly 6 weeks had passed by the time we got the drive underway, the change counted, and I had tried to find a school district in San Antonio which was heavily impacted. I had hoped to buy school supplies but by that point, that situation was already in hand so I turned my attention to the most heavily hit areas of the Gulf Coast. Based on a list of needs from the Mississippi Department of Education Website, I narrowed down the choices to 3 districts that appeared to be in dire straits. At the top of the list, both alphabetically and in terms of need, was Bay St Louis Waveland School District. After requesting and receiving input from the participating principals, I settled on the Bay St Louis Waveland School District. Donna Torres was the contact so I dialed her number to tell her we had over $9,000 for her school district. "How can we help" I asked. Donna was overcome with emotion as I told her that all the money had come from our children and their piggy banks. During our long conversation, Donna suggested that the money go to build a new playground. What a great idea! "So, how much does a playground cost?" I naively asked! The next day, Donna called and told me that the starting cost she saw in catalogs was $22,000! WHAT?? "Well, I'm sure that's retail and I am queen of NEVER pay retail so we will just have to find someone to give it to us at cost." So began my journey to build a playground for Waveland Elementary.
On Sunday, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Sun Herald and a newspaper photographer took a bunch of pictures during the installation on Saturday. They told me they were going to run an article on Monday so I asked Harold to stop by a store so we can get a copy and see the article about the playground. We pull up to a Sun Herald stand and imagine my surprise when I look up and see a picture of me staring back on the front page under the headline PLAYGROUND HERO! Wow! I am just floored! What an honor! It was a terrific article and I am so grateful of the kind words. You can see the article at http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/13582089.htm?source=rss&channel=sunherald_news
I won't kid you, this has been a tremendous amount of work. I have set aside my consulting practice to make this happen and fed my family more soup and sandwich dinners than I care to admit but along the way, I reminded myself of these little children who were living in tents, trailers, the remains of their destroyed homes, and I kept plugging on because I wanted to see them smile and laugh with abandon. That was going to be my payoff and it was going to happen today! Today the children of Waveland Elementary will laugh, squeal with delight, they will run and fall into the soft mulch without a scrape, and just get to be a kid again.
And so they did. After a brief, but emotional, ribbon cutting ceremony, the kindergarteners were the first to get to test out the new playground. Our daughters Riley, a senior at Jamestown High School, and Madeline, a 1st grader at DJ Montague Elementary School cut the ribbon on the new, top of the line, $25,000 playground complete with a rock wall, talk tube, 2 very cool slides, steering wheel panel, chain link climber, and the list goes on. Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo was there along with many other school and city officials and a couple of reporters. (See the ABC press release at http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=4338194 - no that was a typo the playground is not $240 thousand!) I really didn't know if the emotion of the last 2 1/2 months would come boiling up right at the moment I started to speak at the ceremony but I wanted to let the children and adults alike know that this was a labor of love brought to them on behalf of the children of Williamsburg. That I hoped that in years to come they could walk past this playground on their worst day and know that someone in a far away place was willing to reach out and give them a hand when they needed it most. My only request... hugs all around and no fighting over the rock wall! I got my hugs, often more times than once. I climbed on the playground, played with them, and even tried out the slides a few times... very fast & very fun! During the rest of the day, I would run into one of the students I met on the playground and they would run up and give me a quick hug and very sweet "thank you for our playground". It was pure bliss! One little boy was overheard asking "Are they going to leave that playground all for us? I think it's really, really neat!" All the children were so excited they just grinned from ear to ear!
After our ceremony I had a quick conversation with Mayor Longo and asked him what Waveland needed to better help them recover. He told me that they had about 80 senior citizens who had lost their homes and had no way to rebuild. Unlike those citizens who are strong and healthy, they do not have the physical means to even start many of the labor intensive tasks. "So many of them are just sitting in their FEMA trailers waiting to die" he said. "It is just heartbreaking". I told him that I planned to send out emails to everyone I could so they could in turn, pass the word on and get some help to this seemingly forgotten area. So I ask again, what do you need? I could tell that it was difficult for him to say "money" so I said it for him. I told him that after the last few months of coordinating this effort, I too was tired of asking for money but if that is what will make the difference, then that is what I will ask for. The City of Waveland has set up a fund called the Spirit of Waveland. All the funds are used to help local residents and businesses rebuild. If everyone could just sent $20-30 a month to them, they would be able to rebuild and get back on their feet. You can reach Mayor Tommy Longo at mayorsoffice@mchsi.com for more information about the Spirit of Waveland and how to contribute.
At the end of the day, I really didn't want to leave. There is so much to do and it is hard to walk away with so much left undone. As we pulled away in the car, a class of 1st Graders were making their way across the wooden walkway and spotted me. They all started to smile, wave, and yell out "Thank you Miss Rhonda", "Come back and see us!" Oh babies, I can hardly wait!

Rhonda HoneggerOperation Colonial Friends Coordinatorcolonialfriends@cox.net