Paul Brown student organizes classmates for Garth House donations, holiday toy drive

This article was originally published in The Examiner on Jan. 4, 2018.

By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer

Students from Beaumont ISD’s Paul Brown Learning Center delivered items from their toy drive on Friday, Dec. 15.

More than 90 percent of Paul Brown’s students are economically disadvantaged, reading and speech teacher Jola Waggerner said, and 15 percent are currently homeless or displaced due to Tropical Storm Harvey.

But the school’s 95 students donated 146 total gifts.

“That’s very profound that they did that,” she said.

One of the students said she went to the Garth House years ago and she vowed to give back to the organization, Beaumont ISD spokesperson Nakisha Burns said in a news release, adding that this student and her mother have also donated $400 to help others currently receiving services.

“When I had to go to court, [the therapy dog] helped calm me down,” the student said.

Garth House’s older service dog retired, volunteer Linda Griggs explained, but Taffy and Daisy are their current service dogs.

The class’ toy drive is part of a Youth Leadership of Southeast Texas service project to benefit the Garth House, Waggener said.

She said that West Brook High School and Ozen High School will also help make a chalk garden and repaint the fence.

“We’re a credit recovery campus, so our kids have come to us to get caught up,” Waggener said.

All of Paul Brown’s students are deemed to be 100 percent at risk due to credit
deficiency before enrolling, she said.

“We get forgotten,” Waggener said.

The Paul Brown Alternative Education Center was originally housed in the Stephen F. Austin Middle School campus, she said, but the school was moved to Ozen High School when parts of Central High School had to use their facilities after mold issues caused by Tropical Storm Harvey’s flooding.

“We know our situation is temporary, but our teachers don’t have all [the] technology
equipment, furniture or space we had on the Austin campus,” Waggoner said.

Waggoner praised both the students’ and teacher’s resilience despite obstacles.

Garth House welcomes these kinds of donations, Griggs said.

The Garth House is a nonprofit that holds two larger fundraisers every year, one being a golf tournament.

Griggs said she has worked with Garth House for about eight years.

“I call myself the Garth House beggar,” she said.

The Garth House wish list for this year includes office supplies, household cleaners, toys and kids’ books, paper goods like Kleenex and toilet paper, snacks for the kitchen
as well as interview and counseling tools like colored pencils, crayons, paint, playdough and other art supplies for use in therapy.

Bret Babineaux dropped by the Garth House just as the group from Paul Brown was leaving.

He said his daughter Sofia asked all the friends that she invited to her birthday party
this year to bring gifts to donate to a good cause.

They wanted to give the presents to cancer patients in the hospital, Babineaux said, but when that wasn’t possible, he brought the two big bags full of gifts to Garth House instead.