On October 10^th, Hurricane Michael hit Mexico Beach as a category 4 and devastated the area. Things will be much harder from now on for families and businesses located in the panhandle. After the storm, everyone is left with the responsibility of trying to get life back on track and rebuild, but everywhere you look there are the skeletons of homes. Possessions that were once near and dear to families are now laid out waiting to be cleaned up. People are trying to be optimistic and think the worst is over and that things can only go up from here, which is true but it will be a hard journey getting life back to how it was before.

     Hearing all the hardships that people in the panhandle are going through might make you wish you could do something to help out. If you’re a teen, it feels discouraging. “what can I do?”, you might be wondering? There are ways that you could help. Art teacher Mrs. Gates had a donation box in the office where students could place supplies.

Mrs. Gates said she wanted to coordinate the donations because she has relatives who were impacted.  “Just my in-laws… they were affected, so I wanted to help. She thinks it’s important to help because “if we were ever in that situation, I would hope that people would do the same thing.” The box has been sent off but there are still ways you can help if you’re interested, including donations to the American Red Cross , Save the Children, and The Humane Society of The United States.