Akimel pupils, Tempe firm aid island hurricane victims

Young hurricane victims in the Bahamas will soon be drawing on some Arizona generosity, thanks to an Ahwatukee middle school and a Tempe-based freight-shipping company, which teamed up to provide them with art supplies.

The effort began when Akimel A-al Middle School science teacher Camilla Sulak caught wind of the need for arts and crafts supplies in the Turks British West Indies. She asked her students for help. They responded by filling 16 boxes with $1,800 worth of crayons, books, markers and games for students whose lives were uprooted when Hurricane Ike's 135-mile-per-hour winds ripped through the area this month.

After hearing about the effort, Tempe-based Mach 1 Global President Jamie Entzminger offered to ship the supplies and pick up the tab. Her employees also pitched in with donations. After shrink-wrapping and labeling the contents, Entzminger had the boxes trucked to Miami and then sent by air cargo to the islands.

Sulak learned about the needs of the area after talking to a friend, also a teacher, who works in the hardest-hit southern end of the islands.

"I called my friend and she said they had an urgent need for arts and crafts," said Sulak, who grew up spending her vacations on the islands. "The southern islands in the chain had lots of damage to schools and the kids had to be moved to a youth center in Provo (another island)."

Schools supplies were unavailable and power is expected to be out for up to three months in the southern end, Sulak said.

It didn't take long for eighth-grader Tyler Viza to spring into action. The 13-year-old Akimel student donated 52 items, including books from his personal collection.

"They were my favorite books growing up so I thought other kids would enjoy them," said Viza, who joined other students in writing pen-pal letters to the students.

Akimel language arts teacher Sharon Heigh challenged her students to help, too.

"They wrote to local and national businesses asking them to pitch in," she said.

Boxes of art supplies are packed and ready to be shipped by, from left, Jamie Entzminger, president of Mach 1 Global, Akimel Middle School teacher Camilla Sulak and student Tyler Viza, who spearheaded the effort.