UCF grad’s program aids schools in Texas
Saddened by the devastation in Texas, Briana Beverly took to Facebook on Tuesday morning with her “adopt a classroom” proposal, encouraging teachers and students to help their counterparts in the storm-ravaged Houston area.
Beverly, a 2012 graduate of the University of Central Florida, taught for several years and now, while home with a new baby, runs a teaching blog. She hoped her online connections would generate a few hundred offers of help.
By Thursday afternoon, she had nearly 15,000 would-be donors and 1,645 Texas teachers seeking help. She had to ask friends to join her in sifting through the offers and requests for aid.
The responses — from Arizona to Ohio, Florida and even from places overseas — were both overwhelming and heartening.
“I’m so glad that I was able to reach so many people,” said Beverly, 28. “We weren’t expecting this.”
Her role is to be a middleman, she said. So as teachers in need sign up, she pairs each of them with five or more people who
want to help. The donors then contact the teacher directly to work out what might be needed and how best to send it.
Beverly said she expects many donors, at least initially, will send gift cards the Texas teachers can use to buy items for their students rather than supplies that would need to be shipped and stored.
“It will be so heartwarming to share with my students that there are people outside our community that care for their well being,” wrote a second-grade teacher from Texas, asking for help and thanking Beverly for the effort.
Many of the Texas teachers who signed up to be “adopted” said they didn’t yet know the extent of damage to their stillclosed schools. But they knew many of their students’ families lost almost everything when record rainfall brought massive flooding. They requested clothes, shoes, blankets, towels and hygiene products as well as school supplies.
“Over half our class had to be rescued by boat out of their homes,” wrote one Texas teacher.
“The terror I experienced as an adult cannot match what many of my students in trailer homes and RVs experienced,” wrote a fourth-grade teacher who works in an area south of Houston.
“What an amazing idea!’’ wrote a first-grade teacher in a flooded neighborhood. “So many families have lost everything. I will keep you posted on needs! Thank you for this idea and prayers!”
Beverly’s Facebook post about the “adopt a classroom” effort — through her Sun, Sand and Second Grade page — has been shared more than 84,000 times. Teachers as well as parents quickly latched onto her idea, suggesting students and schools take it on as service projects.
“I am in TEARS watching the submissions pour in for teachers who want to adopt a classroom!!! There are SO many of you reaching out to help,” she wrote on Tuesday evening. “That shows the true heart of a teacher.”
Beverly has taught in Orange County, Fort Myers and Nashville. She and her family moved back to Orlando, where she grew up, two months ago.
Her friend and former UCF roommate, Jessica Mancinik, wasn’t surprised by her effort.
“It’s so her. She’s so generous,” Mancinik said. “She has such a big heart.”
Mancinik and her husband, who now live in Denver, were among the friends helping read through the emails, requests and offers.
Two other friends, also former UCF roommates, were at Beverly’s house Thursday to help out, too.
Leanne Hill said she could only look at their laptops and watch in wonder as more and more people signed up to help Texas teachers and their students. “Oh, my gosh. Amazing.”
Hill said she knew for sure that the “adopt a classroom” push had gone big when a friend in New Jersey sent her a link to Beverly’s post and said, “Did you see this?”