Caribou life skills class helps school hit by Hurricane Harvey

Caribou Middle School's life skills class, which consists of students between sixth and eighth grade, collectively put together pouches with school supplies for students in Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey. Teacher Jennifer Michaud stands at back left with her class who are, from left, back row, Carson Potter, Ana Searles, Jason Ulrich, Dana Mignacca, Charles Bates, and Educational Technician Cassandra Davenport. Samantha Shorey kneels in front, while behind her from left, are Taylor Adams, Christopher Adams, Gregory Mignacca, Megan Plourde, Zackery Frost and Mercy McCarthy. (Christopher Bouchard)

CARIBOU, Maine — Students in a life skills class at Caribou Middle School are doing their part to help their peers in Texas who are still recovering from Tropical Storm Harvey, a hurricane that caused nearly $180 billion worth of damage.

Caribou life skills instructor Jennifer Michaud reached out to Susan Mora of Rockport, Texas, who also teaches a life skills class at the Live Oak Learning Center in that community.

After learning that their school was “heavily damaged” by the hurricane, Michaud reached out to her “family, friends, and colleagues” and raised more than $400 to purchase zipper pouches and school supplies for the Rockport class.

Her sixth to eighth grade students were happy to help the Texan students when they returned from harvest break, and even crafted handwritten letters for each pouch.

“They asked a lot of questions and are hopeful that [the Texas students] have an opportunity to write back to us and form a “pen pal” relationship,” Michaud said.

“When we came back to school on Tuesday,” Michaud said, “we had an assembly line and everything all set up. The timing was perfect because they were out of school for six weeks [in Texas] and they’re just getting ready to go back,” adding that Mora was “thrilled” when she heard about the project.

Student Gregory Mignacca of Limestone said he had fun putting the supplies together, adding that he was upset about the hurricane.

“I hate hurricanes,” Mignacca said. “I watched it on YouTube, and it was crazy.”

Samantha Shorey of Caribou wrote that she was “so sorry about the damage from the hurricane,” and that she hopes the package helps.

Shorey said her pouch contained colored pencils, rulers, and “all sorts of things” to help the Texan students.

“It was fun doing this for someone,” she added.

Carson Potter, also of Caribou, said his bag included “crayons, markers, and erasers,” and that he felt “very bad” about Hurricane Harvey.

Michaud was “amazed” at how calm her class was while they assembled the pouches.

“They just seemed happy about it,” Michaud said, “to be doing something for somebody else.”