In the
September 21 issue of the Winston-Salem Journal, reporter Michael Bragg writes about the efforts of Donald Wyatt, the
principal at Sedge Garden Elementary, and others in the school system to help
those hurt by Hurricane Florence.
Photographer David Rolfe took the picture.
Here
is an excerpt:
Donald Wyatt, like many others in the Triad
area, watched footage of Hurricane Florence striking the North Carolina coast
last week, as well as the flooding in the storm’s aftermath.
His focus was on hard-hit New Bern, the place
to which he owes so much for where he is today.
Wyatt isn’t a New Bern native, but his first
teaching job after attending East Carolina University was there. He was at Oaks
Road Elementary School for seven years, and he and his wife started their
family while living in the area.
Nowadays, New Bern’s flag is one of the most
visible decorations on Wyatt’s wall in the principal’s office at Sedge Garden
Elementary School.
“To see these children who I taught, who are a
little bit older now, to see their parents, to see the people I taught with who
live in this area because they know and love — and have always lived in the
area they worked — lose everything, it’s devastating,” Wyatt said.
And now, he is offering whatever assistance he
can to the place that helped shape him as an educator and person.
Wyatt is asking the community to donate
supplies such as toiletries for victims of the storm in New Bern.
“As we watched the devastation unfold live on
TV we just started thinking about what can we do,” he said. “I started
receiving texts and phone calls from my people who decided not to evacuate, and
when we found out that one of the hardest hit areas was one of the schools that
I used to work, I contacted that principal and simply said, ‘What can I do to
help?’”
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Others in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools are also helping out, include Reagan and Mount Tabor high schools.
On Monday, WS/FCS’s annual Marching Band Jamboree
will include an opportunity for people to donate canned goods, water and other
necessities to those in need, said Brad Oliver, the district’s Director of Arts
Education.
The jamboree will be held at Glenn High
School, starting at 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Those who cannot attend the whole
event can still drop off donations, Oliver said.
“They are our neighbors and of course there
are families in need and we all should chip in … and do what we can,” he said.
