Emmaus High Heads to Staten Island to Help Sandy Victims

Editor's Note: The text of this article has been updated to reflect what the Emmaus High School group actually experienced in Staten Island.

A group of 43 students, two teachers, an aide and a parent from Emmaus High School traveled by bus on Friday to deliver donated items to Staten Island, N.Y. -- one of the East Coast areas most devastated by Superstorm Sandy.

The EHS team spent the day working at one of the Staten Island distribution hubs created to disseminate donatations to the people who need them. While there, the EHS contingency helped to sort and organize the items that have been sent to Staten Island from various parts of the United States.

EHS Spanish teacher Claudi Risi, who organized the Emmaus High School relief effort for the purpose of collecting donations, contacted Patch to get the word out to the community about the students' activities. In an email message to Patch she writes: "It was the students' idea to go. The kids also organized all of our donations and made cards for families. Our principal, Dave Piperato, rented us a bus to get there and back and we are excited to help our New York neighbors. The Emmaus community should be proud of our wonderful students."

The students, faculty, staff and community members who participated in the EHS relief effort are encouraged to upload their photos here and share their thoughts in the comments below. Risi is expected to be the first to share photographs and please check back for them soon.

UPDATE:

Risi reports that the EHS students did much more than distribute clothing when they arrrived in Staten Island on Friday. "We were deployed to a site in the New Dorp area where supply tables were set up to distribute the clothing that we brought," Risi writes. "Some students stayed there and helped give out clothing. Out of the remaining group -- half of the students and adults went door-to-door to drop off food and toiletries and the other half took brooms and rakes and cleared the sidewalks and curbs of pieces of dry wall, toys, photographs, records and the ruined worldly possessions of the residents."