GREENWOOD, MS -- While water, food and other aid is flowing to the Katrina disaster area, the education of school-aged victims is looming as a crisis for them and the school districts which have accepted them.

While Communities in Schools of Greenwood-Leflore began in the Mississippi Delta, it provides services around the state including programs in the counties of Bolivar, Grenada, Washington, Leflore, Tallahatchie, Forrest, Hinds and along the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast: Harrison, Hancock, and Jackson counties

Throughout the area, schools are devastated, books and supplies have vanished. The generosity of school districts in unaffected areas will be stretched to the limit for months to come. For those reasons, we will support the educational; casualties of Katrina in the following ways:

Short-term assistance will include:

• Fifty percent of the proceeds from the Oct. 1, 2005 Books 'n Blues events in Greenwood Mississippi will go to Katrina victims.
• Providing funds to support displaced students who need to buy school supplies, textbooks and other assistance.
• Providing funds and assistance to make sure that displaced students can comply with the vaccination requirements of their host school districts.
• Coordinating efforts to make sure that displaced students have desks, computers and other items needed to continue their studies both in school and for home.
• Coordinating efforts to provide after school homework study facilities for students in shelters.
• Helping provide books and other educational enrichment.

Long-term assistance will include:

• Helping rebuild school libraries
• Connecting Katrina-affected schools with partner schools in other areas of the country through the Schools2schools "buddy" program. More about this program at: www.schools2schools.org.
• Providing assistance and training for affected schools to enable them to create and operate their own ongoing fundraising efforts.

Fundraising Activities Expanded

In addition to Books 'n Blues, Communities in Schools of Greenwood-Leflore will be assisted in its fundraising activities by:

Communities in Schools of Washington State and Writer's Day of Action.

Communities in Schools is a nationwide network of locally administered programs dedicated to matching educational resources to needs. We are grateful that CIS-Washington State has volunteered to raise money in its participating schools. Those funds will be distributed to CIS of Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. One hundred percent of those funds will go for Katrina relief.

In addition, Washington State author Clyde Ford in collaboration with Books 'n Blues founder Lewis Perdue, has created a program called A Writer's Day of Action which will unite writers across the nation in a series of readings, signings and other activities to raise money for the Books 'n Blues / CIS Katrina relief efforts. All of the money raised from these events will go for Katrina relief. More about these activities at: www.writeaction.org.