Pleasant Acre overwhelmed with help
Published 12:00 am Sunday, December 12, 2010
NATCHEZ — It wasn’t Santa Claus or any elves that brought smiles to Pleasant Acre Day School last week — it was the people of Natchez.
The needs of the school were listed in a Season of Wishes story in The Democrat Wednesday, and by Friday, school Director Mary Ann Foggo-Eidt was still reeling from the generosity of the community.
The No. 1 need Eidt identified was repair work to the gate behind the building.
“The gate, as I speak right now, is totally complete,” Eidt said Friday morning. “It’s now closed and secured.”
David New Oil Company donated work on the gate, but the local business wasn’t the only one to step up.
“I cannot tell you how many calls we got that first day,” Eidt said. “It was like every five minutes this phone was ringing. People that I knew, who supported us in the past, called, and that I was not surprised by. But there were people coming out of the woodwork that I’d never heard of from as far away as Ferriday.”
Eidt had to turn away volunteers who wanted to fix the gate since work was already under way.
But no one would agree to walk away without doing something, she said.
“Leadership Natchez called and said, ‘I know the gate is taken care of, but the fence probably needs some maintenance, and we want to take that on as a project,’” Eidt said.
“(Head football coach) Ron Rushing at Cathedral called and said his football team wanted to do something.”
Eidt connected the football team with Leadership Natchez for work on the fence.
Monetary donations have been steady as well, she said.
“One man called yesterday and said, ‘I know I’m late calling, but I’d like to assist. I’m putting a check in the mail.’”
“One man came by, reached out to shake my hand and put $100 in it,” Eidt said.
In total, Eidt estimated the school for mentally challenged adults received several hundred dollars in monetary donations in just three days or “almost in 24 hours,” she said.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” Eidt said. “I have to be so proud of Natchez. They have taken care of their own. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
“I’m proud to be an American, but I’m more proud to be a Natchezian.”
Pleasant Acre operates solely on donations and does not receive state or federal grants.
“It just feels like Santa Claus has come many times over,” Eidt said. “Everywhere I would go it seemed like everyone read that article, and I hope all the other organizations are having the same response.”