Fairview High School Seniors Return from Helping Families Affected by Hurricane Harvey

Fairview- It’s been two weeks since a group of Fairview High School Seniors rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Now, the students sit in the library, reflecting on the trip and looking forward to prom. The students had went on their first senior class trip in over a decade. They raised over $5,000 dollars to make the trip a reality. Students cooked pancakes and wrote letters to friends and family for donations.

On the early morning of April 8^th, the group arrived in Houston, eager to take on the new environment and a bite to eat. The first few days focused on exploring and taking tours to local museums. By April 9^th, students were clearing debris for homes affected by Hurricane Harvey.

“It was kind of sad because a lot of them, their houses were destroyed. There’s nothing left,” said Senior Hunter Abbe.

The next day, the kids got on their hands and knees to help cut wood and clear areas where new homes would go.  After long days of hard work, the seniors had to find a way to cool down.

“A lot of times we ended the day with a trip to the Ocean and that was my favorite part,” said Senior Kody Barton.

The whole crew, stayed in a trailer located on a church lot. The Aransas County Harvey Recovery Team hosted the group. Seniors would talk with the people who they were serving and learn about their experiences with the Hurricane.

Either way they were going to experience loss whether they could rebuild or not which I thought was kind of sad,” said Senior Tylor Ross.

A Northern snowstorm kept the group in Texas for a few additional days, forcing the team to arrived back in Michigan on April 17. The memories for these seniors will last forever and the students hope to inspire younger grades to follow in their footsteps. For Senior Tylor Ross, he hopes the underclassmen are taking notes.

“If they have the ambition to go down and have an experience like that, I think that’d be really cool, I’d love to see them do that.”