When fourth graders in Sophia Avella’s class at Cutchogue East Elementary School read through their books last month, each page turned helped raise money for students in Florida displaced by hurricanes Milton and Helene.
Eighteen students in Ms. Avella’s class helped raise $643 with their week-long read-a-thon last month.
The class had been learning about extreme weather events as part of their reading unit in September when Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm, made landfall in northeastern Florida. The storm wreaked havoc throughout Florida’s Big Bend, the Appalachian region of North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, Georgia and southwestern Virginia.
Just two weeks later Hurricane Milton made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Oct. 9 according to the National Weather Service. East central and southeastern Florida experienced significant impacts from the storm, including a tornado outbreak that devastated homes and businesses in the area.
More than 230 people died as a result of the two storms, according to reporting from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Kaia, a Cutchogue fourth grader, moved to the North Fork from Wellington in southeastern Florida in June.
“When [Hurricane Helene] was going on, Kaia had expressed her concern for her friends and her family and those that she loved that were still down there,” Ms. Avella explained.
Kaia’s grandmother spoke with Ms. Avella about their former community and together, they came up with a read-a-thon fundraiser to help students displaced by the storm. The money raised will be funneled through the Binks Forest Elementary Parent Teacher Association to help students who were affected by the hurricanes.
Students and their families were able to choose their pledge amounts to donate to the relief efforts, whether it was $1 per page or $3 per page. Altogether, the students read more than 800 pages from their chosen books to help fuel the charitable efforts.
As part of the fundraiser, Kaia read “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” at home and “Wild World” while in class. She said she feels “grateful” to be able to help her former classmates in Florida.
“I feel like it was so important,” Kaia said, “because it’s unfair that some kids didn’t have a home and suffered through the hurricane.”
Since moving to Cutchogue, Kaia said she has missed her friends down south but has felt welcomed by her new community. Ms. Avella said that since Kaia joined her class this year, she has “added a bunch of light and love” to the classroom.
“She’s really blossomed,” Ms. Avella said. “She was never really quiet, or timid or shy — but she has definitely socialized with her friends and she has a great core group of friends that really just lean on each other.”