American Heritage School In South Florida Helps Residents Of The Florida Keys Rebuild After Hurricane Irma

PLANTATION, Fla., Sept. 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Only a few days after trucks with donations returned from Houston to American Heritage School in South Florida to help after Hurricane Harvey, the students found themselves loading trucks again in the wake of Hurricane Irma. Narrowly escaping the most powerful hurricane in history, it meant even more to them to help those closer to home in the Florida Keys who lost everything.

A Keys Relief campaign was headed by American Heritage School's Vice President, Dr. Douglas Laurie, and his wife, Natalia Laurie. In less than a week, over $35,000 was raised, and boxes of much-needed supplies were donated by hundreds of families at both campuses of American Heritage School in Plantation and Boca Raton/Delray Beach, Florida. Other supporters were MBAF Certified Public Accountants in Fort Lauderdale, Ellen's Ultimate Workout in Davie, and the Alf Family in Palm Beach.

"We recently became residents of the Keys," said Mrs. Laurie. "Experiencing how our community in Key Largo came together to help each other when we were all preparing for the hurricane, inspired us to go beyond and help those affected the most in the aftermath."

A school bus filled with 35 students and 10 faculty members followed by a 53-foot truck transporting the donated supplies drove down to Big Pine Key–the area hardest hit by the hurricane. Keys Community Church and a school, Big Pine Key Academy, received the items. The group also put on working gloves and cleaned the school along with the tree debris covering the landscape where homes, boats, and playsets once stood before Hurricane Irma swept through on September 10.

AP English teacher Kim Kimpton was one of the chaperones. "It's one thing to donate supplies, but to be there and see where they go, and to be hands-on and helpful was a heart-warming experience," Mrs. Kimpton said. "The sense of community was amazing. Those who lost everything were helping out because they had nowhere else to go."

About American Heritage School
American Heritage School (www.ahschool.com) is the #1 private school in the U.S. for the highest number of National Merit Scholars, math competition, and Model U.N.  American Heritage is an independent, non-sectarian, co-educational, college preparatory school in South Florida serving PK3 - 12^th grades.

SOURCE American Heritage School