AGA TOPICS Newsletter

Partnership Formed; Friendships Gained

By: Eric Busse, AGA’s Southern Wisconsin Chapter

A talk with an old friend, an attachment to the city of New Orleans and a desire to help the hurricane-ravaged area spurred members of AGA’s Southern Wisconsin Chapter to donate supplies to John McDonogh High School. Eric Busse tells TOPICS how it came about.

It all started around Christmas of last year when I caught up with a longtime friend, Todd Hardy, who is girls’ soccer coach at Tremper High School in Kenosha. He told me that his wife, who once lived in the New Orleans area, had learned about the damage that still remained at John McDonogh High School in New Orleans a full year after Hurricane Katrina. With no doors on girls’ bathroom stalls, an empty school library, few textbooks, no hot lunch and drinking water problems, the school needed help and Todd organized Tremper High School students to collect donations.

It didn’t take long before Hardy presented the principal at McDonogh High School with a check for $1,200. He also delivered a 28-foot trailer with 10,000 pounds of library and textbooks. I was inspired. I told him that I would see what AGA could do to help.

I went to work, thinking that my chapter, Southern Wisconsin, could give donations to our local food banks and to other non-profit community service agencies. My first task was to read about Tremper High School’s efforts. (http://www.trempergirlssoccer.com/) As I read, I started thinking about Todd’s compassion and his ability to pull many more people with him so he just looks like one of the crowd. I also had one connection with New Orleans: My mom was born there. I guess in the back of my mind I had a sentimental part in this too.

I then went to the AGA website to search out the New Orleans chapter. I wanted to know more about what they were doing as a chapter and I thought that maybe we could just link with them. Well, to my fortune, the website wouldn’t open for me. So I sent an e-mail to Chapter President Jill Byrd, CGFM. Not more than 30 minutes later my phone rings and it’s Jill. We talked about what we could do as a chapter to help. If you know Jill, she is very easy to talk to and about 10 minutes into our conversation, it was like talking to an old friend. During our conversation, I said that since Todd was taking care of the kids and the educational needs of the school, we could try to help out the faculty and staff. We decided to talk to our respective boards and stay in touch.

Jill said that the New Orleans Chapter welcomed our idea and would look forward to the partnership. The Southern Wisconsin board also lent its support. We decided that we would use the February and March luncheons as an office supply drive. In the meantime, Jill sent me Mardi Gras beads for our members as a thank you. Our luncheons were not some of our bigger ones, but those members who did attend were generous. I would like to thank them for compassion and generosity as we collected a large box of supplies and monetary donations.

I look at this situation and believe that something good came from the hurricane’s devastation. We were able to help out and make a small difference in people’s lives while gaining friendships that will last for many years to come.

As McDonogh High School principal Donald Jackson said in the Kenosha News: “I’m calling them my family. Because anyone who reaches out to you in your time of need, that’s what family members do.”