Grants help Louisiana students
displaced by Katrina

United Methodist News Service
BATON ROUGE, La.—Funding from the United Methodist Committee on Relief is helping New Orleans schoolchildren displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Of the more than 600,000 people who left New Orleans when Katrina struck Aug. 29, about half settled either permanently or temporarily in other Louisiana communities.
The relief committee has offered grants to the seven districts of the Louisiana Conference for programs that support humanitarian aid to the thousands of displaced people. Each grant could include requests for up to $50,000.
The Baton Rouge District received a full $50,000 grant for a program targeting two schools—Mayfair Elementary and Scotlandville Middle. They were opened specifically for 480 children displaced by Katrina. Many of the 43 teachers at the two schools were also displaced by the hurricane.
“It was a joy to deliver on behalf of UMCOR and the churches of the Baton Rouge District a check to Mayfair Elementary for the purchase of science education supplies,” said the Rev. Jan Holloway, associate pastor of First UMC, Baton Rouge, and chair of the Baton Rouge District Task Force on Hurricane Response. “I can still remember the first time I looked through a microscope and the wonder I felt. It gave me an appreciation for God’s creative power that I did not have before.”
United Methodists throughout the city have also responded with gifts of uniforms, school books, library books, supplies and teacher resources.
First UMC provided supplies and uniforms received from nearly 50 United Methodist congregations throughout the connection.
“The Baton Rouge District has developed a program focusing on the needs of young children,”
“Due to Katrina, many children and youths have lost their homes and everything in them,” Holloway said. “Their schools have been destroyed, and their friends have been dispersed.
“These children need security, stability, places to learn and play, and counseling programs so that they can rebuild their lives.”

Most of the children were students in New Orleans public schools that, by most measures, weren’t providing adequate education.
“With hard work on everyone’s part, these young people will have expanded educational opportunities provided through their new schools,” Holloway said.

“A local United Methodist businessman got his company to sponsor an art contest at Mayfair Elementary, using the winner’s entry on his firm’s Christmas card,” said the Rev. Larry Miller, Baton Rouge District superintendent. “A retired teacher donated all of her Scholastic Books points from nearly 30 years of teaching, resulting in the provision of over 3,000 books for the schools.”