Mundelein teacher to help storm victims with ‘Back on Your Feet’ program
News-Sun staff report January 3, 2013 7:46PM
Kerri Harris of Fremont School District 79 is helping a school in Point Pleasant, N.J.
Updated: February 5, 2013 6:08AM
MUNDELEIN — Kerri Harris, a a special education teacher in Fremont School District 79, grew up in New Jersey and spent vacations on the Jersey Shore. She was devastated to read of the destruction from Superstorm Sandy that took place in areas of New Jersey that she grew up loving and she was very saddened to read about families losing everything.
She wanted to do something to help and at the same time tie in to teaching her students the value of helping others. Harris decided to stage a program she called “Back on Your Feet,” aimed at providing new clean socks for kids, thinking that walking through flood waters would create a constant need for clean socks. She asked her students to help, and word eventually spread through her school.
Harris went online and identified a local school in Point Pleasant, N.J., one of the places hardest hit and also a place she cherished in her past. She wrote to the school and offered to help. She received a response from a teacher there who was grateful for the offer and said that they had many families in need as a result of the storm.
Harris is still collecting socks for children and is planning to send them shortly. She also had someone offer to donate the cost of shipping.
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