Friday, March 1, 2002
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Friday, March 1, 2002 |
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Community helping teacher and family A tragic situation at one elementary school has united students, parents and faculty in an effort to help a friend who has suffered a great loss. Tragedy struck Robert J. Burch Elementary teacher Pam Dunn Feb. 8 when fire destroyed her family's home and all of its contents. Although losing a home along with precious memories and mementos is devastating, Dunn and her family are fortunate that no one was injured as a result of the fire. As news of what happened spread throughout the school and surrounding community, people were eager to pitch in to help Dunn and her family get through the crisis facing them. The school immediately went into action and set up a fund called Fayette Good Neighbor. Throughout the weeks to come, the school will be accepting monetary donations for the Dunn family to help them with expenses of replacing items that were lost in the fire. Anyone wishing to make a monetary donations to the FGN fund should make checks payable to Robert J. Burch, c/o FGN. Donations of any other items will be handled through Flat Creek Baptist Church. For more information, contact the church at 770-487-4890. Individual classrooms at Burch are holding their own fundraisers to collect donations. One third-grade class has already donated more than $250. "Kids are giving up their ice cream money so that they can help Mrs. Dunn," said school counselor Jackie Uttley. "To give ice cream is a really big deal for the kids." Not only is Burch helping the Dunn family but also are its sister schools, Flat Rock Middle and Sandy Creek High. Since Dunn's children attended the two schools, staff members are looking for any pictures they might have of the former students so that their mother can replace destroyed childhood photographs. "All of the schools have just given an incredible amount of support to this effort and so has the community," said Uttley. Dunn, who teaches first grade, is a charter teacher at Burch, having been with the school since it opened in 1989. Her entire teaching career, spanning more than 25 years, has been in Fayette.
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