ETOBICOKE, Ont. – Up to 15 tonnes of school uniforms are being trucked from Ontario needy kids who were lost all belongings after their homes were struck by Hurricane Katrina.

The clothing drive — organized in part by the Ontario Trucking Association — is in response to an appeal from a Louisiana teacher. The uniforms, worth $500,000, has been donated by R. J. McCarthy in Toronto, the largest school uniform supplier in Canada.

Forbes Hewlett Transport rolls 18 wheels of
compassion to the Gulf Coast

The OTA enlisted the help of the Wheels Group, a Mississauga-based shipping company, and Forbes Hewlett Transport, a Brampton trucking company, to haul the uniforms to Louisiana.

The OTA says this cooperative effort was organized by Toronto Crime Stoppers after Rick Fernandez, the Loss Prevention Manager for 7-Eleven in the U.S. Great Lakes Division, distributed an email appeal from his sister, Jan Berrio, a Baton Rouge school teacher.

Berrio said thousands of students, who have taken refuge in her city since the August 29 hurricane, were in dire need of school clothing and she appealed for people to provide help.

“As you know, our city is growing and growing each day,” Berrio said in her email. “The East Baton Rouge Parish School system gained 1,500 students just in the past few days.”

At this point, Baton Rouge, a city with a population of 450,000 about 122 kilometers (76 miles) northwest of New Orleans, has more than 1 million people living there and the infrastructure is overwhelmed.