Between the months of July and August, both the Chicago suburbs and parts of Northwest Indiana were hit with not one, not two, but three extremely severe storms.
The aftermath, as we all witnessed, was devastating. Roofs collapsed under the impact of fallen trees. Cars were completely smashed. Living spaces were flooded with water. Streets were strewn with stumps and branches. And, of course, the power outages. According to reports from Com-Ed and NIPSCO, the main utility companies in Illinois and Indiana, a whopping 780,000 homes and businesses in storm-affected areas lost power.
With the first storm beginning on July 3rd, and the last concluding on August 12th, these disasters managed to stretch right through back-to-school season—the time most people use to buy their school supplies. What’s more, the power complications made it extremely hard for parents to gain access to supplies. This led to many students in these areas being left to start school shorthanded.
However, these communities were not left to handle this situation alone. Here at Marian, our Women’s Club showed up for local families when they needed it most. Their members worked together to organize a supply drive where students and staff could bring materials for the kids without them.
“We wanted to make sure that the Women’s Club and the Marian Community reached outside of the school in order to give back,” shared Señora Soto, the head of the Women’s Club. “That’s hopefully one less worry for a student and their parent. Hopefully it makes their day better to know that we can give something to them.”
For two weeks, the club collected generous donations of notebooks, pens, pencils, and more. Thanks to generous Spartans, this process turned out to be a great success! According to Sra. Soto, “we collected about three to four boxes [of supplies].”
As of now, the Women’s Clubs’ next step is to get these supplies into the hands of students. “We reached out to some schools locally and in Indiana,” Sra. Soto explained, “to see if they had kids that were affected and might need some school supplies—so we do have a couple schools that we are going to possibly donate to.”
A heartfelt thank you to the Women’s Club for their service this month, and for being an example to our community of how to use our hands to do the work of God! And, as final thank you to those who contributed, Sra. Soto offers these words:
“I would like to thank those who donated sincerely on behalf of the women’s club and from the bottom of my heart. They are making a difference, perhaps a bigger difference than they can ever imagine in a student’s life.”