On Oct. 23, Gunn and Paly’s Youth Community Service club and Key club organized the Bridge of Caring Carnival, held on Paly’s quad from 1-5 pm, to raise funds for schools in Louisiana.

The Carnival was a sponsored by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the Palo Alto Unified School District, Working Wonders, the Parents Club of Palo Alto & Menlo Park (PAMP), the Youth Community Service (YCS) Club and the Key Club, which form the Bridge of Caring Program. Even though there were so many different organizations supporting the Carnival it was mainly a student initiative.

The Program’s goals are to provide financial support to the schools and to build a long term relationship with the schools to help them rebuild their schools.

An estimated 800 people attended the carnival which earned more than $5000 and will go to 7 schools in Louisiana who were affected by of the Katrina Hurricane. “It was the first district wide event in years to include toddlers, elementary school kids, middle schoolers and High School students and really have a draw for each group. I think the Carnival was a huge success!” president of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs Melissa Caswell said.

Activities at the carnival were manned by volunteers from the YCS and Key clubs, in addition to many students and families from other schools. There was also live music from many student bands including The Gunn Hip Hop Club dancers and Megan Segoviano, a flutist from Gunn. “Thank you to everyone who helped make this Carnival successful. Our student carnival committee did a great job organizing and running this event, and we had terrific support from the community,” Executive Director of YCS Leif Erickson said in a recent press release.

The seven beneficiary schools are Bayou Lacombe Middle School, Chahta-Ima Elementary School, Alton Elementary School, Bayou Woods Elementary School, Florida Ave Elementary School, Glyn Brock Elementary School and St. Tammany Junior High School. All of the schools are located in low income areas, have large populations of people of color, are part of a district that might be overlooked and need long-term assistance to recover. The raised money will be given to the schools’ respective PTAs to use at their discretion.

Bride of Caring is also initiating pen pal programs to connect the students with those in Louisiana, and many schools are holding local fundraisers. PAMP has also filled 800 “comfort” backpacks and 100 boxes of clothing to be sent to victims. Other programs include electronic scrapbook sharing and classroom to classroom initiatives.