500 Cases of Water on the Wall

During the month of September, the states of Florida and Texas were both hit hard by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, resulting in power outages and property damage estimated to cost $150-$200 billion.

Even weeks later, many people are still facing shortages of basic items such as clear water. So FCHS Senior Madison Stoltz, FCHS Athletic Director Scott Morris, and the Student Government Association (SGA) helped organize a relief effort to help these hurricane victims.

The week of Sept. 24-29, students were asked to bring in packages of water bottles to their third block classes. The response was overwhelming, with the top water bottle tallies per class as follows:

Dye- 3,151

Koczan- 667

Szarmach- 352

Bridge- 281

Munkacsy- 280

Chidester- 263

Newman- 262

Bower- 200

Wood- 129

Christ- 92

McCauley- 59

Divine- 59

Coleman- 48

Moore- 24

Raviotta- 24

Esch- 24

Green- 24

Between these donations and bottles donated at the Sept. 29 football game against Orange County, the school collected an equivalent of over 500 24-packs were collected, or a total of about 12,000 water bottles.

On Sept. 30, many FCHS staff, members of the football team, and SGA members helped load trucks with the water bottles to send them to the Red Cross for distribution for those in need.

The classes of teachers Dye, Koczan, and Szarmach were rewarded with pizza parties.

SGA Sponsor David Small was impressed with how so many Flucos helped out. “A timid young man came to my door in between classes and said, ‘Is this where I turn in water to help people who were in the hurricane?’ He then handed me a cold water bottle, nodded his head and left. We teach in a pretty wonderful place,” he said.