Photo Courtesy of Mid-Prairie Student Boosters

Just over a dozen Mid-Prairie students traveled to the East Coast to help rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Florence. They made the trip earlier this month to Tampa, Florida, a community that is still putting the pieces back together after a hurricane ran through the area last September. Behavioral Interventionist Matt Freel spearheaded the trip and began planning it just weeks after the storm wreaked havoc. The Golden Hawks were originally supposed to go to Beaufort, North Carolina, in mid-February, but due to the classes missed due to inclement winter weather, they had to reschedule. Freel says they spent the bulk of their time tearing down and placing drywall.

While there were only 18 Golden Hawks who made the trip, Freel attributes the work they did to the entire Mid-Prairie Community, “I think that teaching our young children that no matter what the circumstances are, no matter where you are, no matter what the reason is, lending a helping hand to someone says something about your character. This speaks volumes about you, and it speaks volumes about the community you come from. We would not be able to do this without the tremendous community support that we were given. We talked about that a lot on the trip. It’s not just us here working, it’s the people that invested their time and money into getting us down here.”

The trip was funded by fundraisers and a $750 grant by the Fund for Academic Excellence.