BEMIDJI-Voyageurs Expeditionary حلحلآ» students don't have classes this weekend, but a handful of them showed up anyway to help Houstonians in need.
The school's Student Council organized a drive to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of the Caribbean and southern Texas, flooding the metropolitan Houston area and causing billions in property damage and dozens of fatalities. Voyageurs students, staff, and a few Bemidji Jaycees spent their Saturday afternoon organizing and packing boxes of cleaning supplies, school supplies, clothes and toys that'll be shipped to the Houston Jaycees on Thursday.
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"We like to help out our community and do whatever we can, and we decided that it would be a good idea to go in and start up and help out a different community that was in need," said Peyton Dean, a senior and Student Council member at Voyageurs, which asks its students to complete 20 hours of community service every year. Dean said some students there complete many more hours than what's required.
Students and staff at the charter school donated about 200 items, and the community at large-including a handful of Bemidji-area business and the Jaycees-donated a few hundred more.
Becky Kummet, a math teacher at Voyageurs who advises the Student Council, said on Saturday they'd collected about 600 items since the drive began a few weeks ago and hoped to bump that number to 700 by the end of the day-well beyond Dean's rough 500-item goal.
"We're just hoping to get as much as we can on a semi truck that comes on Thursday," Kummet said.
The drive lasts through Wednesday night. Anyone with an interest in donating to it can simply drop off their aid items at the school: 3724 Bemidji Ave. N.
