Sophie Driscoll ’19
& Julia Rosier ’18

Students are working to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas. Westport groups and businesses such as the Staples music department, the Assumption Church Youth Ministry, the Staples Gender Sexualities Alliance (GSA), the Westport United Synagogue Youth (WUSY) and portable flood barrier company AquaFence organized charitable efforts.
The Category 4 hurricane hit Houston on Aug. 25 and lasted until Sept. 2, bringing 130 mph winds and approximately 52 inches of rain, according to The Weather Channel.
The Staples music department, led by Orchestra Director Adele Valovich, will hold a string concert at Saugatuck Elementary School at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 18. Donations will be collected at the concert, and the money raised will be used to replace Texas schools’ sheet music that was destroyed by the hurricane. The freshman orchestra, the sophomore orchestra, the symphonic orchestra and the chamber orchestra will perform.
“I thought it was a great idea,” Valovich said.
Students involved with the Assumption Church Youth Ministry have raised money for Hurricane Harvey relief through a car wash. “People who got their car washed would donate $10 to Hurricane Harvey victims,” Assumption Church Youth Ministry member David Kalinowski ’18 said.
According to Mariella Alderucci ’19, GSA members are working “to express our moral support to the LGBT+ community in affected areas, to show them that they aren’t discriminated against in relief efforts.”
Additionally, since the hurricane hit, students involved with WUSY have been selling water bottles and donating the proceeds to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. “It felt good to help others,” WUSY member Mili Cattan ’19 said.
Members of WUSY also collected items such as food, clothing, toiletries and school supplies for those affected by the extreme flooding in the aftermath of the hurricane, which they gave to AquaFence Director Adam Goldberg. On Sept. 9, Goldberg held a charity drive on Imperial Avenue in Westport.
“AquaFence is a business that I’ve been involved in for five years, and we protect a lot of buildings in the northeast,” Goldberg said. “Being in the flood business, seeing disasters that happened, we wanted to figure out a way we could help, since we weren’t there to help before.”
Goldberg and his team spent two-and-a-half hours loading the provisions onto an AquaFence truck.
That afternoon, Goldberg’s team drove the truck to Harris County in Houston, where Goldberg donated both the provisions he had collected and the truck itself. The next day, he hosted a barbecue for roughly 500 people. Goldberg then donated the barbecue grills, as well.
Goldberg has been impressed by the concerted effort Westport residents have made to help Hurricane Harvey victims. “I just think Westport’s shown it’s an amazing town,” Goldberg said. “Just everyone pitching in, and seeing how good our town and nation is as a whole, just feeding through all of the negative news that’s out there, and just doing something good. It’s fun.”