Perry High School providing school backpacks for Mexico Beach students

In light of the destruction that Hurricane Michael caused many in the southeast part of the country, Perry High School has stepped up to provide support to Port St. Joe High School in Port St. Joe, Florida, near Mexico Beach, in a donation drive called “Packs for the Panhandle.” A group of students from the National Honor Society gathered together after school Monday afternoon to fill school backpacks up with school supplies to distribute to students who attend Port St. Joe High School.

“After Hurricane Michael came through the area, we started thinking about how we can help the people of Mexico Beach, because it was the one that took the direct hit,” said Perry High School Science teacher and organizer of the project, Tammy Conner. “We are the National Honor Society and our service projects revolve around academic service, and so we decided to help the people of Mexico Beach by organizing a donation drive for school supplies. The last thing parents in that area need to worry about is whether their kids have any pencil, pens, or notebooks for their kids.”

All students who live in Mexico Beach (elementary, middle, and high school) attend school in Port St. Joe, Florida. The school supplies that the National Honor Society are sending are: colored pencils, paper, notebooks, glue, highlighters, pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, folders, hand sanitizers, etc.

“It’s been really fun. We’ve had a lot of involvement from the school. Even people outside the National Honor Society have been donating, which is really cool,” said Perry High School senior, Phoebe Guidry. “It just feels nice, because I know hearing about everything going on down there, you feel for them. It’s hard for one single student to help them, but when we all work together, we can really make a difference.”

“It’s nice to see how much support the community has had in helping people who have been impacted by this hurricane, down in Mexico Beach. While it’s great to see everybody donating, it’s even better to see the involvement we have here,” said Perry High senior and President of the National Honor Society, Kamal Patel. “All the students are taking time out of their daily lives to come out here for a couple hours to put these backpacks together in order to help these in need; it’s just great. It wouldn’t be possible unless everybody was contributing.”

Conner said that the school faculty and community have been highly responsive in contributing to the school project, including two teachers at Perry High baking cookies to sell, in which the proceeds went to the school to raise money for extra supplies for the backpacks. Conner said that once the word got out on social media regarding the school project, the community got involved and they received monetary donations from areas like Macon and Fort Valley, including supplies from King’s Chapel Elementary School as well.

“We heard that they are so excited and so humble, that somebody in Perry, Georgia is thinking about them,” said Conner, touching on what the response was from Port St. Joe High School when they heard what Perry High was doing for them. “They’re very grateful for what we are doing.”