TERREBONNE PARISH, La. — With school starting up again soon in the bayou parishes, parents and kids lined up Sunday to get free school supplies.
A welcomed event, as so many lost everything during Hurricane Ida.
"Our home has got a lot of water damage. So it’s probably going to be a loss" said one parent.
The Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence teamed up with the Lafourche Foundation for Education, to giveaway 600 school supply kits and backpacks.
Parents said the giveaway came at just the right time since there are many extra expenses following the storm.
"Very much so because I mean we have our deductibles for insurance, we have hotels, we had the generator running," said a parent.
"It helps us with less burden to replace all these things after all we just been through with time lost at work and loss of money and stuff like that.” said one parent
While it’s important for parents, the giveaway is also helping teachers, too. Many schools were damaged by the storm, destroying valuable classroom supplies.
“The last thing these teachers need to worry about is replacing their classroom supplies so that’s what we are trying to do is to help get them back to normalcy,” said Paula Rome, Lafourche Education Foundation.
The event was made possible with the help of dozens of volunteers and through a $10 thousand donation from United Way and organizers said this is just the beginning.
“This is just our first distribution. We want our teachers and students to know that we are here to support them every step of the way and we will be here to support them until they can get back into the classroom,” said Ashlee Barahona, Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence.
It is in no way an easy time for anyone here but getting back to school offers a familiar feeling as families work so to get back to what life was like before Ida.
“It’s stressful but we are taking it one day and trying to do what we can to get our kids back on track," said one parent.
A community came together to offer a little bit of help during this difficult time.