In the News:

Schools pack backpacks for Katrina Kids

SARANAC LAKE, NY - Several schools in the TriLakes area, along with the Garrett Hotel Group, are uniting in an effort to bring classroom supplies to a school impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

Northwood School in Lake Placid and Petrova and St. Bernard's elementary schools in Saranac Lake are joining an effort to help the St. Thomas School in Long Beach, Miss., which has lost everything except its 273 students.

St. Thomas will reopen temporarily in a skating rink on Oct. 3 2005 and to help them, organizers of the Tri-Lakes effort are looking for donations to put together backpacks for the students and boxes of supplies for the teachers.

The following is a list of items most urgently needed:
·two-pocket folders
· markers, pens
·legal pads, pencils
· sticky notes
·construction paper
·Neosporin
·baby wipes
·disinfectant sprays/Band-Aids
· stickers, bug spray, spiral notebooks

St. Thomas School is part of the home catholic parish of Saranac Lake's Claire Wagner, now a parishioner of St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Saranac Lake. She alerted local residents that this school and parish family is in desperate need pf help. For those who would like to see photos of St. Thomas from before and after the hurricane devastation, its Web site is www.saintthomasschool.org

A truck is scheduled to depart from Saranac Lake to. Mississippi Saturday, Sept.24, and those interested may help in two ways:

Donations from the above list may be dropped off from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at St. Bernard's School.

To sponsor a backpack, a donation of $30 will take care of one child, and a personal note may be included Checks may be made out to St. Bernard's School in any amount and dropped at the school office