WASHINGTON, D.C. - Children in Catholic schools and religious education programs nationwide joined with students around the nation to raise more than $1 million to assist students affected by the recent Gulf hurricanes.

Through “Child to Child: A Catholic Campaign to Aid Education,” the young people of the country’s Catholic educational programs joined with the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) initiative to collect dollar contributions from students locally to help children in areas ravaged by the storms and in other areas impacted by large numbers of evacuee students. By Dec. 2 the contributions totaled $1,040,000 from 1,254 schools and religious education programs.

Dr. Karen Ristau, NCEA president, and Daniel Curtin, executive director, Chief Administrators of Catholic Education at NCEA, will present checks from the campaign to Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans, along with superintendents and directors of religious education from several of the dioceses that will receive the funds.

The ceremony will take place today at Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Students from Cathedral Academy will be on hand to receive another gift from students – letters of support from children around the country sent to NCEA for forwarding to students in hurricane-impacted areas.

The NCEA president praised the exceptional charity and initiative of the students, “Students truly captured the spirit of the “Child to Child” campaign,” said Dr. Ristau. “Through their personal gifts and fund-raising efforts they reached out to their counterparts in areas devastated by the hurricane. Their contributions went beyond money; they gave solidarity and support when it was most needed.”

She added that “Students nationally put the concepts of social justice into practice in a tremendous way,” she said. “This truly was a positive example of one student helping another.”

Dan Curtin noted that many schools and parishes across the country also reported making substantial contributions directly to local charities or to national organizations such as Catholic Charities and the American Red Cross. Other schools and religious education programs adopted parishes impacted by the hurricanes, providing monies and supplies.

According to Mr. Curtin, campaign monies will be distributed to the following arch/dioceses: Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Biloxi, Galveston-Houston, Houma-Thibodaux, Jackson, Little Rock, Memphis, Mobile, Nashville, New Orleans, San Antonio and Shreveport.

“We are supporting those areas most affected by the storms,” said Dr. Ristau. “While we wish we could have given monies to all dioceses that applied, in the end we were able to help those in the most need.”

Many dioceses incurred significant financial challenges by enrolling students displaced from the hurricane areas. For instance, the diocese of Baton Rouge, La., initially enrolled more than 4,000 displaced students. An estimated 1,500 remain and are likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

The NCEA president added that all monies collected from students would go for the educational needs of students. NCEA is contributing the necessary administrative services to implement the program.

“While one million dollars can’t begin to cover the losses incurred by our educational organizations,” Dr. Risatu said, “it can help a recovering school replace destroyed computers or textbooks or help a host school provide uniforms, books and tuition for displaced students. It can enable a parish to purchase educational materials for its youth religious education efforts.”

Dr. Ristau added that the most compelling gift was the Christian charity that motivated young people to give to the “Child to Child” campaign and other humanitarian endeavors. “As Catholic educators, we strive to teach our students to reach out to those in need. The response to this catastrophe underscored that our students have gotten the message.”

NCEA is the largest private professional education association in the world. The association’s membership includes more than 200,000 educators serving 7.6 million students at all levels form Pre-K through graduate school. It was founded in 1904.