AIDING THE RECOVERY
School bands together to help hurricane victim
TROY, N. Y. » When faculty and students at La Salle Institute heard about an opportunity to aid a family whose home was destroyed in a fire during Hurricane Irma in Daytona Beach, Fla., they all began to find a way to raise money to help.
Steve Dole, who is a 2001 graduate of La Salle Institute and a former religion teacher at the school, moved to Daytona Beach over two years ago to become a principal at Lourdes Academy. During the duration of Hurricane Irma, Dole was able to safely come back up to New York.
However, his current school secretary, Laurie Brissette, lost her home, car and pet in a fire.
“Our secretary lived in an evacuation zone, so she had to leave, so we are fortunate that her and her mother are safe, but ultimately she ended up losing her home,” said Dole, who came back to La Salle Friday for a homecoming pep rally and to be presented a $ 3,000 check from La Salle
for Brissette. “The fire was at a time when the storm was at its worst, so first responders weren’t able to get there because it was too risky for their safety.”
Dole said that the campus minister at La Salle recently reached out to himto help organize a fundraiser at La Salle to be able to raise money for Brissette.
“The campus minister here at La Salle, Ted Deeb, reached out a couple weeks ago when I was up here and said that they really wanted to do something to help people get back on their feet after the hurricane,” explained Dole. “The next morning is when I received the phone call frommy secretary saying that she had lost everything, so I reached out to Ted and said this would be a great thing for the boys to help with.”
“Steve is a member of the La Salle family whether he’s in Troy or not, he’s always going to be a member of the La Salle family, so I thought it would be perfect to reach out to him and deliver some aide through him,” added Deeb.
Students at La Salle Institute
said that theywere happy to help especially since it was for someone who has ties to the campus, so they decided to raise money during a recent dress- down day.
“I had Mr. Dole as a teacher when he was here in 10th grade, so when we heard that he needed some help for his secretary, we were all over it,” said John Gordon, a senior at La Salle and the president of the Student Senate. “We all supported him by [ paying to wear] a red shirt and we raised $ 3,000 for him.”
Dole said he is grateful to the faculty and to the Cadets at La Salle for wanting to help in this way now.
“La Salle always has and always will have a special place in my heart,” said Dole. “There’s just something special about this school, but I’m not at all surprised that they reached out because that’s what they do on a regular basis here.”
“This is what La Salle is all about, we’re here to reach out a lending hand to help others out, so if anybody is in need and we hear about it, we do the best we can to try to help,” added Gordon.