Our Final Trip to NOLA

After six years of working to assist the citizens and students of New Orleans, our charity will no longer be sending aid to the Crescent City. With enormous needs within the Chicago Public School system, and other areas of the country reeling from assorted tragedies, we have to move into those regions to offer our help.

It is not as if the NOLA public schools don't need the help, they most certainly do!! We simply can't be everywhere, the funds don't allow us to help as many children as we know need the support.

It saddens me that we will not be heading back south. I am sure that by next July I will be anxious to help them, knowing that they still need the backing. I'm certain that I will miss our trek to New Orleans because of the wonderful people who are doing all they can to help educate the children.

In spite of the continuing obstacles; poverty, limited resources, public schools being minimized, and so much more, I remain optimistic about the quality and commitment of building teachers and principals.

To be sure, there are people in positions of power and authority in the RSD system who are jeopardizing the progress of the schools and children. Firing good principals, making last minute decisions (for example, announcing on the first day of school that starting on the 2nd day, school will start an hour earlier!!), threatening to take over schools if they aren't made charters, allowing overcrowding, and more are instances of undermining the good done within local schools.

I have always felt, since Katrina blasted New Orleans, that the vast number of individuals, within the schools, have done far more good for the children than people realize. Their hearts and minds have always been focused on 'doing right by the children.' I don't see that changing.

I want to thank each of you, who have been involved in our NOLA projects, for making a difference in the lives of so many deserving people. You are most kind and generous.

Sincerely,
Dick