Just weeks after signing a $45.8 million budget into action, Octorara Area School District board members and administrators on July 11 penned their names and good wishes into squares of a quilt which will soon be placed in a home in Joplin, Mo.
“A community that’s struggling in many ways here still wants to reach out,” said board President Lisa Bowman of the handmade quilt, a symbol of caring which traveled to Joplin on last week with the Christiana Lions Club.
Jim Groff of Christiana, president of the club, and Shawna Johnson, school board member and Lion, told board members the club is sponsoring a relief trip to Joplin, which was devastated by a 6-mile tornado on May 22.
According to FEMA, $14 million in government assistance is in place to rebuild the community, which lost more than 120 people, and more than 20 volunteer community organizations and agencies are there doing relief work.
Groff said he wwould bring the quilt, which was donated by the newly opened Quilt Ledger shop in Christiana, and a trailer with two skid loads of survivor kits and food from the Chester County Food Bank.
Lions volunteers began to put their plans into action less than a week ago. One call led to another, with Christiana’s historic quilt shop donating a pastel work of beauty, warmth and art, and the food bank contributing practical sustenance.
The Lions said they have raised about $4,000 to contribute to community needs. Citizens, like the board members and administrators, have also been paying $5 each to sign quilt squares. In Joplin Groff was to join the Lancaster Lions volunteers.
“There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes,“ Groff said. “It’s about us people making it happen.“
Groff, a stone mason, is no stranger to cross-country adventures. He has in past decades organized fund-raising trips of the Christiana Clampetts in classic jalopies.
In another slight change of pace from months of budget crunching, Superintendent Tom Newcome asked the school board to consider a new Octorara tradition, a fall harvest or apple festival which would include rides, food and other attractions.
“The idea would be to create a tradition on campus and a revenue stream,” said Newcome.
“I hope we can have an apple festival, make some money, and divide it up with programs that have been hit very hard here,” said board member Bob Hume.
The superintendent received favorable comments from other board members and is proceeding with plans for the fall event.
Newcome also reported a YMCA group known as Stride donated an azalea and plaque which have been placed at the district office in memory of Cpl. Brandon Hardy, an Octorara graduate who was killed in 2006 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The sixth annual motorcycle ride honoring Hardy was held July 16.
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