Byram students, staff combine to aid good causes

Byram - Byram students and staff have kept busy throughout the the 2005 - 2006 school year, “showing their golden hearts” in efforts to help others, reported Deborah Hooker, seventh grade teacher at the Byram Intermediate School. In September, donations were accepted to aid the Hurricane Katrina victims. Notebooks, pencils, socks, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, various school supplies and backpacks were collected. Sixteen backpacks were filled to their zippers with school supplies and basic necessities and shipped to Louisiana through the “We Got Your Back Program.” The remainder of the donations were shipped to a shelter in Slidell, La. Prior to the holiday season, the students donated gifts to Toys for Tots. All the gifts collected were used as part of the town council’s annual gift drive and helped to brighten the holiday of children in the township. During February, students and faculty collected spare change as they took part in the “Pennies for Patients” program on behalf of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Change buckets were placed in the offices and several classrooms. At the end of the three-week collection, Byram Intermediate School sent a check for $883.40 to the society to help fight leukemia and lymphoma. The seventh and eighth grades “Great Can Race” was in full swing at the end of February with a collection of non-perishable food items that were donated to local food organizations. “The students showed their caring ways by donating over 250 food items,” said Hooker.