News and information for staff members and the Madison community
Vol. I No. 2 - December 19, 2005
It was never a question of if we would help. It was only a question of whether or not we could pull it off. But what started with one phone call asking for help ended in a truckload of food and donations.
The outpouring of emails and phone calls from staff wanting to help was unbelievable. We only had two days turn around time to pull this off, and we were hoping to get enough to stock each family with enough food for a few days.
It is hard to put the overwhelming response into words, or to list all the people that helped. It proved to me what a really wonderful organization we all work for. At times we might feel separated by the types of jobs we do, or the space between where we all work. But in this instance we were all a team working in such harmony that it is almost impossible to believe what we pulled off.
The amount of donations we received was so overwhelming that the drivers who had been commissioned to pick up the food had to take extra trips to the schools. Volunteers from all over the district started showing up at Building Services to sort, load and deliver the items to the apartments the new families would be occupying.
With all of deliveries accomplished, the next day, students from Work/Learn spent the day sorting the rest of the food. The food pantry that services the neighborhood, picked up the remainder of the items from Building Services and the extra money was given to either the penny drive for the district, or to the Katrina Fund.
This experience has shown that by working together, we created a welcoming home to new families in need, while at the same time helping other neighborhood residents. When life proves to us that we really are all connected, we realize that the only way we won't make a difference in the world is if we get lost in the myth of being alone and isolated. We did make a difference by working together.
Volunteers from across the district came to the Pflaum Road facility to help sort food and personal items to deliver to Katrina evacuees that came to Madison.
Last Updated: Tue Mar 28 12:17:36 2006
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