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The Roaring Fork Valley will be sending Christmas to Pearlington, Miss., before the Red Ball Express retires its regular runs of supplies to the town local communities have adopted.
The Christmas wishes of 150 kids in Pearlington have been collected, said Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Kay-Clapper, who will return to the hurricane-ravaged town after Thanksgiving. Valley governments, fire departments and others have divvied up the shopping list and will purchase a present for every youngster in Pearlington.
Clapper and Vern Holmes of the Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District will fly to Pearlington on Nov. 30 and return Dec. 6. Their trip is funded by donations. The Red Ball Express will transport the gifts and, hopefully, a Colorado Christmas tree, Clapper said.
"It will be the last of the Red Ball Express rounds, as we know it," she said.
A Christmas party is being planned in Pearlington. A Pensacola, Fla., resident is donating 200 pounds of crab, 200 pounds of shrimp and a band to the celebration, Clapper said.
After the trip, the Aspen Valley Medical Foundation will assume oversight of ongoing relief efforts, dubbed Mountains to Mississippi, taking over from the Carbondale fire department.
So far, the valley has sent about $100,000 worth of donated supplies to Pearlington, and raised another $70,000 to $80,000 to fund the effort, according to Hilary Smith, county manager.
Local representatives in Pearlington are also assessing what project the valley can tackle to help rebuild the community. A town park has risen to the top of the list, Smith said. Landscape architects on the Aspen Parks Department staff have offered to design it, and students at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale have volunteered to make its construction their senior class project. Fifty-five CRMS seniors are willing to head to Pearlington in March and get to work, Smith said.
While construction of other facilities in Pearlington has been the subject of discussion, there's concern the town won't have the resources to maintain a structure, or that new zoning and building codes that may evolve in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could stall such a project, she said.
A park is a community gathering place that Pearlington residents can care for themselves, Clapper said.
"The park was more doable in the scheme of what it would leave the community and what they could do with it," she said.
Katrina essentially destroyed Pearlington, a small town near the Gulf Coast. Carbondale "adopted" the town in order to give direct aid to a community in need; other Roaring Fork Valley communities then joined the effort.
<b>Students chip in</b>
Students across the Roaring Fork School District - at schools in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt - have raised or collected more than $10,000 in funds and dozens of boxes of donations for hurricane disaster relief efforts, according to a statement from the school district.
A district representative said classrooms hosted coin-collection jars, students sold relief bracelets, and kids raised funds with snack sales and a car wash. Students and teachers alike collected everything from bags of personal necessities and basic school items to library books to stuffed animals, the statement said.
The collected goods and money have been sent either to Pearlington or directly to the American Red Cross to help in that agency's broader relief efforts, the school district reported.
Janet Urquhart's e-mail address is janet@aspentimes.com
The Christmas wishes of 150 kids in Pearlington have been collected, said Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Kay-Clapper, who will return to the hurricane-ravaged town after Thanksgiving. Valley governments, fire departments and others have divvied up the shopping list and will purchase a present for every youngster in Pearlington.
Clapper and Vern Holmes of the Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District will fly to Pearlington on Nov. 30 and return Dec. 6. Their trip is funded by donations. The Red Ball Express will transport the gifts and, hopefully, a Colorado Christmas tree, Clapper said.
"It will be the last of the Red Ball Express rounds, as we know it," she said.
A Christmas party is being planned in Pearlington. A Pensacola, Fla., resident is donating 200 pounds of crab, 200 pounds of shrimp and a band to the celebration, Clapper said.
After the trip, the Aspen Valley Medical Foundation will assume oversight of ongoing relief efforts, dubbed Mountains to Mississippi, taking over from the Carbondale fire department.
So far, the valley has sent about $100,000 worth of donated supplies to Pearlington, and raised another $70,000 to $80,000 to fund the effort, according to Hilary Smith, county manager.
Local representatives in Pearlington are also assessing what project the valley can tackle to help rebuild the community. A town park has risen to the top of the list, Smith said. Landscape architects on the Aspen Parks Department staff have offered to design it, and students at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale have volunteered to make its construction their senior class project. Fifty-five CRMS seniors are willing to head to Pearlington in March and get to work, Smith said.
While construction of other facilities in Pearlington has been the subject of discussion, there's concern the town won't have the resources to maintain a structure, or that new zoning and building codes that may evolve in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could stall such a project, she said.
A park is a community gathering place that Pearlington residents can care for themselves, Clapper said.
"The park was more doable in the scheme of what it would leave the community and what they could do with it," she said.
Katrina essentially destroyed Pearlington, a small town near the Gulf Coast. Carbondale "adopted" the town in order to give direct aid to a community in need; other Roaring Fork Valley communities then joined the effort.
<b>Students chip in</b>
Students across the Roaring Fork School District - at schools in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt - have raised or collected more than $10,000 in funds and dozens of boxes of donations for hurricane disaster relief efforts, according to a statement from the school district.
A district representative said classrooms hosted coin-collection jars, students sold relief bracelets, and kids raised funds with snack sales and a car wash. Students and teachers alike collected everything from bags of personal necessities and basic school items to library books to stuffed animals, the statement said.
The collected goods and money have been sent either to Pearlington or directly to the American Red Cross to help in that agency's broader relief efforts, the school district reported.
Janet Urquhart's e-mail address is janet@aspentimes.com
