Hi Dave,
Thanks for all your work and posting to keep us alums in the know! Just wanted to pass along something from another West High Alum. I have a (much)younger brother, Jim Potter, who graduated in 1985 and now lives in the New Orleans area. Recently he had a article written in the Iowa City Press Citizen about the plight of the schoolchildren in Jefferson Parish where he and his wife Marykathryn are teachers. Marykathryn sent me this excerpt (below)
If anyone in the class of ’73 is interested in helping have them email to me scole55 AT cox.net and I can pass along information. Our family is truly thankful that Jim, Marykathryn and their son Jacob were able to evacuate safely and their home was spared.
Happy Autumn,
Sheila Cole
Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
Monday, October 3, 2005
Schools Helping Former Student
Iowa City Press-CitizenA former Iowa City student who is a teacher in Louisiana is looking to his former schools to help hurricane victims in his new home.
Jim Potter, a 1985 West High graduate and a former student at Wood Elementary and South East Junior High, is looking for help for John Clancy Elementary in Kenner, La., and the surrounding schools of Jefferson Parish outside of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina devastated the area on Aug. 29, and the Jefferson Parish Public Schools have been closed since then. They are due to reopen today, with about 600 students, plus an unknown number of students surrounding parishes whose schools have been closed for the year because of the hurricane, Potter said.
“We’re hoping to get an influx of their students,” he said. “They’ve discontinued the school district for the most part. Right now, we’re at a loss of what our enrollment is going to be.”
Potter’s home sustained little damage from the storm, as did Clancy Elementary. However, many of the students and the new students lost everything, including the clothes they are required to wear as part of the school’s uniform policy.
“Of course, the kids may not have anything,” Potter said. “But the school district is not going to make them buy new uniforms.”
To help them, Potter said he wanted to gather as many white T-shirts as possible from the schools he attended in Iowa City.
“It’s a sense of belonging and being uniform through the system,” Potter said about the uniforms. “We’re hoping to get as many as we can get. Whatever we get, we’re going to be doling it out everything.”
Potter said he hoped to use a print shop at a high school in Jefferson Parish to print Clancy Elementary’s logo on the donated T-shirts.
South East Junior High Principal Deb Wretman said her school has raised more than $6,000 in hurricane relief funds, donating the money to the American Red Cross. She said she did not know how much more students could give, but she was willing to use South East as a drop off point.
“I think it’s a terrific idea,” she said. “I said when we fill up a box, we’ll let Jim know. The sooner the better.”
Potter said two of his brothers who still live in the Iowa City area, Roger Litton and Jerry Litton, have persuaded their companies — Plumbers Supply and Contractors Tool and Supply — to donate the shipping of the shirts.
By Rob Daniel