Although it may not have seemed like it would, the sun did rise again. It rose the day after Hurricane Helene blew through St. Pete, while junior Cooper Bullard alongside his best friend, junior Logan Phares-Robinson, worked to clean up the damage three feet of storm surge did to his home.
“There were a lot of random people in and out of my house that I couldn’t really talk to or work with,” Bullard said. “But having someone [there] that I’ve known all my life…It was a great help.”
Bullard and Phares-Robinson’s story isn’t the only one of its kind; Hurricane Helene hit Florida as a Category 4 storm on September 26. Hurricane Milton followed suit, hitting as a Category 3 just two weeks later. The Tampa Bay area was battered by severe damage from flooding, wind, and rain, and was forced to prepare for further devastation after recovery from Helene had just begun. But in the aftermath, several members of the Shorecrest community came to each other’s aid when they needed it most.
Sophomore Edward Sax lives in the same neighborhood as two other Shorecrest students whose homes were devastated. Almost immediately, he offered a helping hand. “There was a bunch of debris in their backyards, so we had to clean all that up, and then we took the furniture from inside the house that got damaged by the water,” said Sax. “It was really sad.”
However, cleaning up debris was not the only task to be done. The Shorecrest Community Association (SCA) Volunteer Coordinator Lauren Carlan ensured everyone’s needs were properly addressed. “SCA responded to the hurricanes by providing a platform for the entire school community to share needs and willingness to help. The SCA Facebook page became a way for families to help one another out,” she said.
Numerous posts offering aid have filled that page, from washing laundry to recommending rental homes for those displaced. Shorecrest parent Shannon Pennock posted, “Our family is beyond honored and clearly privileged to be part of this special community. I am going to drop off a bunch of Starbucks gift cards for staff and teachers.”
Upper School Head Dean Stacy Alexander was one of several faculty members affected by the storms, left with four to six inches of flooding in her home. “Miss Meyer, who is Ms. Spencer’s assistant, she came over and took all of my laundry, and she did laundry for me, and they dropped off a generator and a dehumidifier. And then Ms. Barrett, who’s our Communications Director, she sent her husband over, and he helped us move furniture and gave us an industrial fan. So the Shorecrest community and my friends have been really amazing and really understanding,” she said.
As the entire community worked to lift each other back onto solid ground off campus, the administration developed ways to assist students on campus. Alexander said, “One of the things that we did was we made Monday [September 30] a no assessment day. We wanted to give kids a day to just come back and settle back in… On Monday, I [also] created a spreadsheet with Al Irwin to have quiet spaces available both in the morning and up until five o’clock in the afternoon, just for kids to get work done.” Many students remained without power or Wi-Fi in their homes, or without a home at all, so having a dedicated space to quietly get work done was a much-needed offering.
Shorecrest’s hurricane relief efforts didn’t end there. Juniors Lily Dávila and Mila Bianco were inspired by their volunteer work with Reach St. Pete to start a hurricane donation drive to help citizens in Pinellas County. “I really encourage people to donate because it’s directly affecting people in our community,” Dávila said. “[We ask for] everything that the specific donation spots [in Pinellas] will allow or will take in, so canned food and personal items like a toothbrush.” To support the drive, there have been donation boxes set up throughout the school to collect items.
The Shorecrest community worked tirelessly to restore its students and city to what they were, forming unique bonds with one another that will never be broken. “I think the Shorecrest community really shines in these difficult times, and we really come together and support each other,” said Alexander.
