A "spare change drive" recently netted $700.
SOUTH HADLEY – Students at South Hadley High School have decided to “adopt” Monson High School for the year.
Monson was struck by the tornado that ripped through Western Massachusetts on June 1.
Tiesa Graf, head of the foreign languages department at South Hadley High, remembers thinking to herself, “Here was a parallel community that should be at a point of celebrating and rejoicing because of graduation, and instead it is simply devastated.”
Graf is the faculty sponsor of the effort to help Monson High students and their families. When assistant principal Ted McCarthy called a meeting for anyone interested in tornado relief, “30 students and 17 faculty and staff showed up,” said Graf, and the number keeps growing.
So far the group has held a bake sale. A car wash planned for Saturday was rained out, and the tentative new date is June 15.
“We also set up a spare change drive,” said Ashley Willis, 16, a sophomore at South Hadley High who is one of the leaders of the initiative.
“At lunch we put out buckets and people can drop in pennies or quarters or whatever they want,” said Willis. Sometimes kids give up their snack money. The first week produced $700.
Willis is especially invested in the project because her mother is an art teacher at Monson High.
“She’s been teaching there since before I was born,” said Willis. “I know the teachers and the community.”
The first time she viewed the damage in Monson, Willis tried to imagine what it must be like for a student whose home was destroyed. “I would think of all my stuff,” she said, “important documents, how it’s going to impact my life.
“I think there would be an identity loss as well as a material loss,” said Willis. “It would remove your security. You can move into another house. But it’s a big thing to lose.”
When Graf learned from a colleague that volunteers in Monson needed something to prevent dehydration as they went through debris without potable water nearby, the South Hadley High volunteers bought and sent 750 bottles of Gatorade.
They have also collected sunscreen and bug spray. The town of Monson has an ongoing list of things they need posted on the Internet, Graf said.
From now on, she said, her group will try to send money, because those receiving it know best what they need. The kids have all kinds of ideas for raising the money, she said.
On one of the deliveries, they will take to Monson a banner. South Hadley High students painted it under the direction of history teacher Stephanie Viens.
In blue and white, the Monson High School colors, the banner is emblazoned with the words, “Monson, you are not alone.”