Students in Pauline Williamson’s ninth-grade World Geography class at STEM Academy are learning to put themselves in the place of people impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton by having them pen Notes of Hope.
Williamson has friends in North Carolina that have been affected and has received social media posts from them with photos of the destruction and stories of aid and comfort. On a recent Friday, one of her classes was looking at photos and writing notes. The evening before, the school had a Community Fair where some of the students had written notes — of hope and joy.
“We’ve taken a look at a lot of the pictures of the devastation for Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina, especially, and I’ve asked you to put yourself in their place. … I ask you, what would you feel like if you were there? What would you feel like? What would you be worried about?” she said.
“I don’t know what you guys have gone through, my suspicion is that a few of you guys have gone through some difficult things; maybe some things where you felt like your world was falling apart, or you felt alone, or you felt like you didn’t know what was going to happen next. Part of what I wanted to do with these Notes of Hope … I want them to know that we are thinking about them; we care about them; and that they are present in our thoughts, and they’re connected to us. They are not alone,” Williamson added.
She added that she has made contact with several of her friends in the area who have churches and places that are feeding 1,000 people a day.
“Think about something that would make you laugh or smile, because when you’ve gone through really horrible things, you want … something that you can pull out and look at it, and it reminds you that somebody cares about you. It reminds you to smile sometimes. Actually having something tangible to hold onto can make a ton of difference,” Williamson said.
Students can identify with tragedy because of the Aug. 31, 2019, mass shooting. Seven people were killed and 25 injured. The shooter, Seth Ator, was shot and killed by multiple law enforcement agencies as they made a final stand in a field near Cinergy Theatre.
World Geography covers hurricanes, weather events and how they affect cultures and people. She also teaches government to seniors.
“A couple of years ago, there were really big storms and flooding in Pakistan that we did things on. But with these people, I think, for our kids it’s almost easier for them to relate to people that are in America,” Williamson said.
Williamson started with the three World Geography classes and there may be elementary students participating as well.
“I kind of figure however many notes we put together, there will be more people that might need one and so I would love to get more donations of notes that could be sent out as well,” she added.
She’s going to try to send the notes out before Thanksgiving, but some may go out sooner. The notes will go to Western North Carolina and North Georgia
Everyone comes at the notes from different perspectives, but she’s told the students to steer clear of “toxic positivity,” like you’ll get over this, or everything is going to be all right.
“There will always be disaster and fear and hard hits in the world. But if we can do the generative work of helping people heal, of trying to build community so that there is some kind of a safety net when disaster does strike, that’s what we do. We do it for other people and then part of it is the hope that they would do the same for us, but really, it’s just the right thing to do,” Williamson said.
Cooper Holman, a 14-year-old ninth grader, said he thinks Notes of Hope are a really good idea.
“We’ve had floods before where it only floods out a few roads … but over there the entire place has been covered with water. It was said to be like trillions of gallons of water overtaking the entire area,” Holman said.
