By Brian Zanzonico
When Hurricane Rita swept through Orange, Texas, it toppled trees and tore the roofs off homes and churches in a pious community where 20 percent of residents were living below the poverty line. The West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District was hit especially hard. But days later, the kindness of an H. Frank Carey High School teacher who had volunteered with the Red Cross brought something the community needed most - hope.
A year later, many months after Bart Badalucco promised to help West Orange-Cove Superintendent Dr. O. Taylor Collins and delivered on that promise, rallying the people of Franklin Square to raise more than $15,000 and collect hundreds of pounds of needed supplies, Orange is back on its feet.
"We're going to make it," Collins said. "We've taken one of the most tragic events in the history of our community and came back stronger than ever."
Orange still bears open wounds, with fewer trees, blue tarps serving as roofs, and the presence of trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Collins said. When school opened Aug. 21, enrollment was 2,660 - remarkably, down just 100 from a year ago, which, Collins said, shows the perseverance of people who refuse to abandon their community. Most of the residents evacuated in the path of the storm, which is why there were no deaths, and have returned to start over.
"We feel really fortunate to get that many [students] back," Collins said. "It could've been worse, like in New Orleans."
A week before the school year started, the rebuilding of the second floor of the elementary school was completed. Only part of the building was usable last year.
The gym at the middle school - one of five district schools - will be finished in a month, after sections of the roof were blown off and the exposed hardwood basketball floor sustained water damage. Next up is replacing the press box and the lights around the football field. In Texas, where high school football captures the attention of every community, games are played on Friday nights. Collins said that night games should return to Orange in November.
In a town Collins said was "just making it day by day before the hurricane" the school district alone sustained more than $5 million in damage. After months of haggling with their insurance company, Orange schools recently received $5.6 million. "It was a fair settlement, but it took a year to get it," the superintendent said, noting that the district and the insurer settled just a month ago. "They were very difficult to deal with. For the trustees and me, it presented a lot of worry at a difficult time."
But the cost of insurance rose from $170,000 last year to $660,000 this year. It is just another storm the district will have to weather, Collins said.
When Badalucco returned to Franklin Square last October, he established a series of fund-raisers called Orange-Aid to assist the people of Orange. The Carey and Franklin Square communities took to Badalucco's cause with a zeal that far exceeded anything he could have imagined. In less than two months, Orange-Aid raised $15,000 and collected 2,000 pounds of school clothes and supplies, new and slightly used toys and two computers donated by SBS Computer in Franklin Square.
Wal-Mart and Home Depot gift cards, clothes and toys were purchased for school district students and congregants of the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, which was nearly destroyed, and were shipped to Orange, arriving just in time for Christmas. St. Therese Roman Catholic Church received the computers, which replaced one damaged in the storm, and Badalucco personally delivered money to fix the church's damaged interior in February.
"The churches are central to our community, and [Franklin Square residents] provided clothing, toys, Home Depot cards, Wal-Mart cards, money for a veterinary clinic," Collins said. "They were our Santa Claus before Christmas at a time we needed it most."
Said the Rev. Agbor Fredrick Isek of St. Therese Church: "Every bad thing brings something greater."
Badalucco's work caught the attention of his union, and he was given the New York State United Teachers Humanitarian Award. He accepted it at a presentation upstate. "At the close of my speech, I walked down three steps and heard Dr. Collins's voice," Badalucco recalled. "I turned around, and there were two huge screens with Dr. Collins and [the Orange] community thanking me. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and seeing. I lost it right there."
The kudos didn't stop there. During the first week of the school year, Badalucco, a Franklin Square native, was named the Sewanhaka School District Teacher of the Year. He said it doesn't get any better than being rewarded with such an honor.
Meanwhile, in a town 1,500 miles southwest, Collins said the best is yet to come.
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