The catastrophe of Hurricane Harvey has not gone unnoticed by members of the Argyle community, and various student and teacher-run organizations are putting forth an effort to assist the Gulf Coast victims.

“I was overly concerned about a lot of friends that [the hurricane] hit,” Talon News Adviser Stacy Short said. “I wanted to make sure that we were doing our part to help out in whatever way we could.”

The driving forces behind the school’s involvement in these efforts include the Student Council Program, the Talon News Program, and the Career and Technology (CATE) department. Together, these three programs raised over 5,000 dollars and collected donations including water bottles, baby formula, and diapers.

“[The students] were very kind and generous,” geometry teacher Rashid Rahman said. “In every class period, we had different ways of connecting. I would send out a coke bottle, and [students] would fill it with their spare change. Whatever they had, they would give it to us.”

Jeanna Sutton helped her students create colorful boxes to collect items and monetary donations, putting special meaning into their creation.

“The symbolism [behind the boxes] was that the Lord promised he would never destroy the Earth with water again,” Sutton said, “so the kids wanted the boxes to be rainbow colored, signifying the rainbow and the hope that we have.”

Stacy Short also contributed to creatively raising funds. 

“I heard about the bucket relief campaign idea from one of my friends in the news industry because they were trying to get that wave going with all of the high school football teams to help out different schools,” Short said. 

Although teachers played a large part in the campaigns, both Student Council and the Talon are ultimately student-run organizations and the charity efforts were primarily accomplished by students.

“We really worked to get a bunch of donations from the school like diapers, cleaning products, and paper towels,” sophomore Hannah Wood said. “One of the big things we got were water bottles. We had a couple of kids bring in a bunch of cases of water.”

Plans are currently in the works to bring the items donated to Kingwood High School, which was affected by the hurricane, and hold a special pep rally to present the goods. Although the disaster brought by Harvey is tragic, it has served as a reminder to serve others and exhibit kindness.

“I think it touched home because if that were us, we would want other people to help us out,” Wood said. “We all wanted to jump in and help the other schools that needed it.”