Education Funding

Art Kits Go to Hard-Hit Mississippi Schools

By Laura Greifner — December 13, 2005 1 min read
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More than 30,000 elementary school pupils in hurricane-torn Mississippi received art-supply kits from the National PTA last month.

Susan Brand, left, the principal of Beauvoir Elementary School in Biloxi, Miss., works with National PTA President Anna Weselak, right, to unpack art kits.

Rack Room Shoes Inc., a shoe-retailing chain based in Charlotte, N.C., donated the art kits to the Mississippi Department of Education’s Katrina Recovery Program. The kits contained such items as markers, crayons, colored pencils, and watercolor paints.

PTA leaders visited schools in Biloxi, Gulfport, and Jackson to deliver the kits and to award a National PTA grant of $5,000 to the Anniston Avenue Elementary School PTA in Gulfport.

“National PTA believes creating art is a valuable learning experience,” Anna M. Weselak, the president of the Chicago-based organization, said in a statement. “We’re happy to have the opportunity to team up with Rack Room Shoes and place these supplies in the hands of children.”

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