Catholic high schools in St. Tammany help Harvey victims

By Margaret Baglow, St. Scholastica Academy

My house flooded in Hurricane Katrina. Five weeks after my family had moved from the northshore to the southshore, our new house in Metairie flooded in that horrible hurricane.

Eleven years later, the flood waters struck our family again when the March flooding in Louisiana came the day before the Abbey Youth Festival at St. Joseph Abbey and Seminary College in Covington, an event my mother had meticulously planned.

Our story is not dissimilar to many in the community here in the New Orleans area.

I owe the solidarity that our area feels with those in Houston to our experiences with flooding.

That solidarity has led the northshore Catholic high schools to take action for those who are suffering perhaps much greater losses due to flooding than we have ever known.

Monday morning, St. Scholastica Academy (SSA) students and parents came to school begging to help Houston flood victims any way they could. Well, when given a list and a school bus to fill, SSA Doves certainly delivered our “Stuff the Bus” for Houston.

SSA wasn’t the only school involved. Archbishop Hannan High School’s student body president Michael Messina says, “Even before we were able to put together something for the student body, we had groups of students trying to help any way they could.”

With the help of Archbishop Hannan in Covington, Pope John Paul II High School in Slidell and St. Paul’s School in Covington, we have over-stuffed the bus, and an 18-wheeler was on its way to bear this community’s generosity to Houston.
Students at these schools know what it is to suffer from flooding; therefore, they are determined to help in any way they can.

As with the March and August Louisiana flooding, we are in this for the long haul – we will be collecting and helping in any way we can until further notice.
I have found myself contemplating how blessed I am to attend SSA this week, as on Thursday night I received my senior ring with 136 of my dearest friends.

It is an incredible blessing to attend a high school like SSA not only for its prestigious academics, but the morals it instills in us. No other community can surpass the selfless kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness fostered here at the northshore Catholic high schools.

One of the four Benedictine pillars taught here at SSA is “community,” and I have never seen our community pillar so beautifully displayed than this week.

Margaret Baglow is a senior at St. Scholastica Academy in Covington.