Capital News 9
Hats on for Waveland
Updated: 10/6/2007 8:34 AM
By: Kaitlyn Ross

"Everyone can wear a hat for a dollar each and the first day, we raised almost $300 dollars," Deutsch said.

His father, Ron, who helped kick off the fundraiser said, "It teaches them a little lesson about Waveland, why they're wearing the hats, and it helps us raise money, it's an unbelievable response."

Two fifth graders from Greenfield are leaving for Waveland Saturday to help rebuild an area that's still a wreck after Katrina.

Ron said, "People seem to have forgotten what happened down there two years ago, we're just so far removed from it."

Sarah Chertok is also going on the trip. She said, "We just take so much for granted and we don't want anyone here to forget about them, or forget about what they went through."

Sarah and Ronnie's families will be joining them on the trip and their parents hope the experience will help to open their eyes.

Ron said, "My hope is that it will give him a sense of how lucky he is, how lucky all these kids are to have a home, to have food on the table, to just have hope that the next day will be better than the last."

After the kids leave, they'll remain in contact with the kids from Waveland through a pen pal program the school is setting up.

Chertok said, "It'll make those kids really happy and it'll make us really happy because we'll have new friends with different interests, we can tell them about our city, they can tell us about their cities."

And the friendship helps in many other ways.

Ron said, "Every little, every act of compassion really helps out down there, and goes a long way. It just makes a lot of sense."

The families will be in Waveland until October 10th.