Volunteers deliver school supplies to Louisiana

The newly formed group, Spirit of Calabasas Foundation, collected hundreds of items in a citywide fundraiser last weekend for school children and other residents of Plaquemine Parish in southern Louisiana, an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The items were packed into trucks on Monday and will arrive in Louisiana for delivery today.

According to Red Godfrey, foundation president, the donations filled approximately 100 boxes with items such as pens, rulers, paper, winter coats, toilet goods, computers, filing cabinets, and over $1,000 in gift cards for various stores.

Plaquemine Parish, which is comprised of nine cities, nine schools and about 26,500 people, requested mostly school supplies.

“Councilmember (Jonathon) Wolfson and I will depart by plane (today) and will link up with parish officials on Friday to present the supplies,” said Tony Coroalles, Calabasas city manager. “Once we get back, we’ll figure out if there is anything else that Calabasas can assist with.”

The idea of helping a parish came from Godfrey. She spent some time in the disaster zone recently and became familiar with the area. Plaquemine is the southernmost parish, or county, below New Orleans.

According to local experts, the area will take years to recover. In fact, Plaquemine still has a large number of people who aren’t accounted for.

“We want to tap into the resources of our community to actually give it an extra sense of pride and be able to, through its willingness in helping other communities, give back in any way, shape or form,” Godfrey said.

In related news, the Spirit of Calabasas Foundation will also produce the first ever Fourth of July parade for the city, Godfrey said.

“The two-day program will consist of a cocktail event at Calabasas Motors on July 3,” she said. “This will be an evening of wine and music and ultimately, the drawing for the Mercedes we’ll be raffling. The following day we will, in conjunction with the city, host a community parade to highlight the project (helping Plaquemine) and maybe even invite members of our twin community to be present.”