District Helps Out Tornado-Stricken High School

Two truckloads full of desks, chairs, lab tables, file cabinets and other such necessary items to outfit a school rolled out of the Lakewood High School parking lot on Aug. 17, on their way to Lake Local Schools outside of Toledo to help that district furnish a temporary high school being put together in the wake of a tornado that leveled Lake High School earlier this summer.

When news of the devastating tornado on June 5 that leveled Lake High School in Millbury spread, our district knew it had to do something to help.

"We knew that if we were in a similar situation that others would be there to help us so we wanted to be able to do something to help this district in an unfortunate situation not of their making," said Treasurer Rick Berdine.

District officials contacted Lake Local administrators who in turn came to Lakewood to survey the pieces that would be available to them to see whether they would fit their needs.

“We didn’t have any science tables,” said Lake Local Curriculum Director Jodie Takats, “So we were thrilled to see so many science tables available.” The Lakewood donation outfitted all the science rooms of the temporary high school, Takats said.

The furniture that the district donated was sitting idle waiting to be auctioned. The pieces had come from the west wing of the high school that had been torn down, rebuilt and re-furnished with all new items.

"The need there is far greater than our minimal cash return we'd get from that auction," Berdine told the Toledo Blade for an article it recently published on the donations Lake Local has received from various school districts and area businesses. The article calls Lakewood City Schools' donation, "An especially generous one."

The donation also helped get the ball rolling for other donors, according to Takats.

Once people heard about Lakewood donating other districts fell in line and started donating, too,” she said.

The students, who return to school on Aug. 25, will be in their temporary home for at least two years, Takats said. She said the Lake Local district is just grateful that donors like Lakewood City Schools are helping to make the transition a little smoother.