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Compassion is 'in' at East Lake High

By JANE MADDEN WELCH
Published September 27, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - At East Lake High, school spirit isn't limited to pep rallies or cheering at football games. Dozens of students have rallied to raise money for hurricane victims along the northern gulf coast.

"The response from our students has been overwhelming," principal Clayton Snare said. There have been carwashes, a canned goods drive and doughnut sales. Backpacks are being filled with school supplies. The multicultural committee is organizing a carnival. Tin cans are set up in the lunchroom to collect change.

Junior Michelle Cook is planning a black-tie dinner and show at the Westin Innisbrook Golf Resort.

Freshmen Anna Athanasatos and Stacie Shepherd posted fliers asking for donations of personal hygiene items, blankets, diapers and baby formula. Athanasatos said the response has been very good and that she "just wanted to be able to help in some way."

Junior Max Gershberg is planning a charity golf tournament.

"I was watching TV the days after it (Hurricane Katrina) happened. It just makes you feel so terrible. You feel helpless," said Gershberg, 16. He decided he wanted to do something "really big."

He enlisted classmates and fellow golf team members to help organize "Golf for the Gulf Coast," an 18-hole tournament that includes a dinner, a silent auction and raffle drawings. The tournament will be held at the Wentworth Golf Club in Tarpon Springs on Oct. 15. They are seeking sponsors and 120 players.

Junior Karsten Farrell, 16, is in charge of the auction committee and has contacted area businesses, entertainment venues and professional sports franchises.

"With (Hurricane) Rita now in the picture, the Red Cross will need even more help," Farrell said.

Junior Jessica Hollick, 16, is on the auction committee. "I feel we were lucky and we should help other people not as lucky as us," she said.

The money collected from the various projects is being put into a single fund handled by the school's National Honor Society. It will be donated to the American Red Cross in the school's name, Snare said.

East Lake High has been directly affected by the hurricanes.

"We have three Katrina victims who lost everything now attending East Lake," Snare said. They relocated to Pinellas and are temporarily living with relatives.

East Lake High language arts teacher Pamela Keller is from Long Beach, Miss., where she has a home four blocks from the gulf.

"Make that had a home," Keller said. "It's basically been destroyed."

Two weeks ago, students and staffers surprised Keller with a $900 donation they collected for her son and his girlfriend. The school's guidance department contributed a gift certificate to Publix.

Keller chokes up talking about her former high school students in Mississippi. "They are pleading for supplies," she said. "They have nothing."

Keller asked her East Lake students to donate clothes she can take to her former students in Mississippi. She said she was impressed with the response.

Snare said he is also impressed with the fundraising efforts and generosity of the students.

"The compassion is there," he said. "They've certainly put their time and talent to good use."

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]