ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — One group of students living in St. Petersburg may have returned to class, but they have yet to return to their school, which was severely damaged during the storms.
St. John Vianney Catholic School lost its entire library during the hurricanes, but this week, it received a great surprise when the Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts stepped up and donated 3,000 new books.
Box after box, volunteers carried thousands of books into the school, which is temporarily being run out of St. Jude Cathedral School following the hurricanes.
“With Helene, it was the flooding, of course, and the storm surge. Unfortunately, all 10 buildings on our campus were underwater from 15 inches to about four feet,” said Director of Advancement and Engagement Janet Czyszczon. “So then, with Hurricane Milton, it was obviously the wind. One-third of our classroom windows were blown out. About 95% of all the contents were completely ruined, so obviously, it’s going to be a long road ahead.”
Looking at the signs up and down the hallway welcoming the new students, it was obvious that St. Jude Cathedral School was eager to open its doors and hearts to them.
“When we heard that one of our fellow schools in the diocese needed help, we were the first ones to just jump and say, ‘What do you need?’” said Principal Nicole Loseto.
Many of these students lost their books at school and at home. When the Bill Edwards Foundation found out about the dire situation, the nonprofit immediately loaded up the truck.
“I love to be able to share the joy of reading and to be able to provide that for these students when they lost so much,” said Education and Outreach Coordinator, Katrina Young.
“We did not expect the enormity of books, so 3,000 books are really going to replace our library,” said Czyszczon.
“We were all really sad that we lost them and I’m really grateful that everyone is giving all of us these books,” said one student.
“It's really nice that we get all these books because there is a bunch of different ones and I know the people here will like them,” said another student.
Teacher Gina Campagnola said it's acts of generosity like this that will help these students regain some sense of normalcy.
“It was a very big deal because the last couple of days, we started last Tuesday, and it was like, ‘Oh, we don’t have this book, we don’t have that book,’ so we are real excited to go through the books and see what they have,” said Campagnola.
"It doesn't make any sense."
FEMA guidelines for debris removal do not include condos or condominiums because they are considered commercial enterprises. A public information officer for the City of Clearwater told ABC Action News, "We are not removing debris from condos; we do consider them commercial."
