When hurricanes took aim at the southeastern United States in late August and early September, Catholic schools and parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago started to mobilize.

A group of schools in Oak Park and River Forest came together to collect a truckload of supplies for Catholic schools in Beaumont, Texas, which were inundated by Hurricane Harvey in the last week of August.

The Beaumont-Port Arthur area got nearly 4 feet of rain in a week — including a foot in one six-hour span on Aug. 29.

“When we asked about sending help, it seemed like most of it was going to Houston,” which Harvey had hit hard earlier in the week, said ShaRhonda Dawson, a parent of a fourth-grader at St. Luke School in River Forest. The school got connected with Marcia Davis, schools superintendent for the Diocese of Beaumont.

The schools there needed everything from cleaning supplies like bleach and trash bags to plastic bins to be used as lockers, as the lockers in the schools were contaminated with floodwater and cannot be used until they are cleaned or replaced, Dawson said. Davis told her the schools couldn’t buy bins in Beaumont — any stores that had them were sold out.

The schools also needed school supplies for students, and books and other classroom materials and asked for Target and Walmart gift cards.

“We asked the kids what they thought the school would need, and the little ones all said ‘toys’,” Dawson said. 

The St. Luke community asked for help from Lincoln School, St. Vincent Ferrer School and Trinity High School, also in River Forest, and Ascension and St. Giles schools in Oak Park, and ended up filling a semi-trailer truck on Sept. 15. The donated truck ended up breaking down, leaving the school community looking to rent another truck the following week.

Dawson said the help is not a one-time event.

“We want to make this our project throughout the year,” she said.

In addition to the needs of the Beaumont schools themselves, members of the Catholics schools’ communities are also suffering, Dawson said. Davis reported that 35 teachers were left homeless by the flooding, as were 135 Catholic school families. 

Another truckload of supplies went from Chicago to Florida to help people affected by Hurricane Irma, which struck the state Sept. 10.

Mauricio Romy and his wife, Angela, lived in Broward County, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale for 10 years and have seen their share of hurricanes. 

When Romy saw that Hurricane Irma was headed straight for his former state, he rented a truck and put out a call to the St. Hilary School community to help fill it with supplies to deliver to those who would be affected by the storm. 

“I know how messy it gets,” said Romy, whose two daughters attend the school at 5614 N. Fairfield Ave. 

He felt he had to do something to help since he still has family and friends living there. Based on past experiences, he also knew that many people would try to stay in their homes. Aid organizations can’t do it all, either.

“They are limited with the resources they can give so I decided to get a truck and start filling it up,” Romy said. 

Shortly after launching his plan on Sept. 7, Romy reached out to St. Hilary’s principal, Kathleen Donovan, asking to park the truck in the school lot and put out a call for donations. 

“I said, ‘Absolutely.’ This is what we do. We help each other. We teach our kids to give service to others,” Donovan said. 

News media got hold of the story and soon donations were pouring in from around the Chicago area and beyond. They collected bottled water and other items like baby food, diapers, pet food, shampoo and soap. Some of the school students also made cards to give to people in Florida.

On Sept. 12, Romy and his wife started driving to Florida. 

He called the response to his request for donations “amazing.”

“It’s really emotional to see how the community gets together for one simple cause,” Romy said. “This truck is full of little blessings.”

Other schools raised money to be donated to hurricane relief efforts. 

They include:

-- St. Patricia School in Hickory Hills raised more than $600 for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston with “Hats for Houston” on Aug. 30.

-- Students and faculty at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School raised $500 for the Red Cross with a dunk tank at the “Mac2School” bash.
-- Infant Jesus of Prague School in Flossmoor collected more than $2,000 in gift cards for Queen of Peace School in Houston.

In addition, the archdiocese’s Office of Human Dignity and Solidarity is coordinating other efforts to provide relief to areas impacted by the hurricanes in the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and in the Caribbean. To learn more or to donate, visit pvm.archchicago.org/hurricane.