Golfers do the rounds to raise cash for victims

Armed with a large plastic jar labeled “Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund

Donations”, Robert Trainorasked his fellow golfers from the DeBell

Burbank Senior Men’s Golf Club to play a round of golf at their

monthly tournament on Friday to aid the victims of hurricane Katrina.

Trainor is one of several Burbank residents finding ways to help

victims of the hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast area of the

United States in late August, leaving as many as a million homeless

and thousands dead.

Other local efforts include school donation drives, pancake

breakfasts and lemonade stands. Woodbury University is opening up

classes to allow displaced students to continue their studies.

Trainor felt compelled to set up the donation jar during the

registration for the tournament after watching television reports on

the hurricane’s devastation.

“Here we’re better off, all playing golf, and they don’t have

water to drink,” Trainor said. “It was the least we could do.”

Club members donated $364 in the moments leading up to the

tournament, which Trainor took down to the Red Cross with

instructions that it be used to help hurricane victims.

“As far as I’m concerned, any little bit can help,” he said. “If

everyone did the same thing, hopefully they’d be overwhelmed with

enough resources to get what they need.”

In the frenzy of returning to a new school year, students at

Jordan Middle School found time to conduct a drive on Friday that

raised $3,360, Associated Student Body Advisor Kathy Hodgins.

“I was really impressed,” said Hodgins. “This is a way for all of

us to think of people other than ourselves and a way for the kids to

feel connected to bigger problems.”

Associated Student Body President Tiffany Ho, who helped conduct

the drive, said she felt compelled to help other Americans who are in

need.

“We don’t have hurricanes here and we need to help because they’re

part of the U.S.,” said Tiffany. “I’m happy because I know people

here want to help them.”

Students at John Muir Middle School are holding their own drive

through Sept. 20. For additional incentive, Principal Dan Hacking has

offered to have his head completely shaved at the school’s upcoming

Family Fun Night if the students raise more than $1,500. If the

students raise more than $2,000 he will have his hair shaved into a

Mohawk and if they raise more than $2,500 he will have the Mohawk

colored.

Students are well on their way to a bald principal, having already

raised more than $1,000, Muir’s Associated Student Body advisor

Marcia Reily said.

Students are struck by the vast damage the storm caused affected

states, she said.

“There’s so much devastation,” Reily said. “There’s whole cities

lost. I think the students realize that and are truly affected by

it.”

Some local residents are holding their own individual fundraisers.

Siblings Jane and Sam Chew and some of their friends raised $118

running a lemonade stand on Sunday afternoon.

Jane, 10, and Sam, 7, donated money to victims of the tsunami that

struck South-East Asia in December, and wanted to help out again.

“They know that’s part of what you do, you volunteer,” their

mother, Sally Chew, said. “They were actually pretty shocked though

when people would give them five dollars for lemonade and not ask for

change.”

Jane and Sam plan on donating the money to a children’s charity.

But helping comes in many forms.

Woodbury University Dean of the School of Architecture and Design,

Heather Kurze, came up with the idea to take on displaced students

when her son mentioned that some of his friends who attend colleges

in the Gulf Coast area had been sent back home after their schools

were damaged by the hurricane. Kurze realized that students attending

Tulane University in New Orleans -- a school that offers an

architecture program much like Woodbury’s -- would be displaced from

their studies.

“I just thought if they’re coming home and sitting there waiting,

in the meantime they could be going to school, and that we could work

out an arrangement for them to get credit,” Kurze said. “If we have

seats available and there’s someone who can benefit from it, then we

should do it.”

Many large companies are also helping hurricane victims.

The Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. has committed $2.5 million to

the hurricane victims -- $1 million will go to relief efforts from

the Red Cross, another $1 million will go to children’s charities and

$500,000 will go to centers providing volunteer services in the area.

Many Burbank residents are planning for future fundraisers.

Bret Harte Children’s Center will hold a pancake breakfast from

6:30 to 9:30 a.m. on Friday with the proceeds being donated to the

Red Cross. The breakfast is $5 for adults and $3 for children.

“There’s such a need over there and such huge devastation,” said

Peggy Rosales, a teacher at the center. “We need to do something and

we need the children to see that we should lend a hand to our fellow

Americans who have been so affected.”

Teachers and aides from the center will make the pancakes, and

Starbucks has donated coffee.