KATRINA SPURS LOCAL COUPLE TO ACT.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- When high schoolers Frank Ball and Karen Borowski sipped milkshakes in the small Louisiana town 35 years ago, they thought about rock music and independence, but never envisioned books floating off the shelves of school libraries decades later in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

The Santa Clarita residents, now married, acted quickly after the storm touched down Sept. 24, raising more than $22,000, and on May 5 they sent more than 97,000 donated books to refill shelves at six schools in Terrebonne Parish, a town about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Floodwaters destroyed the homes of a third of Dularge Elementary School's 170 students, but the school remained intact. And school officials donated half of the 8,000 gift books they received to individual children.

``Some families have lost everything,'' said Joan Boudreaux, the Dularge school librarian. ``It's like Christmas in May. (The children) are thrilled.''

Summer vacation starts May 24, and Boudreaux made sure the books were in small hands before then. The other 4,000 were divvied up between the library and classrooms. Preschoolers through second-graders attend the school, located in a low-income area.

a volunteer humanitarian group made up of local businesses, organizations and individuals. The coalition, headed by the president of the local radio station, has sponsored three families who lost their homes in Rita and Hurricane Katrina, relocating them to Santa Clarita.

``We thought we'd hit a home run with 20,000 books,'' said Carl Goldman, president of KHTS 1220 AM radio in Canyon Country. ``The ball went out of the park. Everyone grabbed hold of this project, including those in Houma (a small town in Terrebonne Parish).''

Dealing with the devastation in his hometown from afar was hard for local real estate agent Frank Ball, who attended Dularge Elementary.

``This was part of the healing process for us,'' he said. ``We just felt so helpless being here.''

His wife, Karen, a second-grade teacher at Fair Oaks Ranch Elementary School in Canyon Country -- who grew up in Houma -- helped launch Kids Helping Kids, whose fundraiser CD helped buy school uniforms for children hit by a double whammy: They were taking refuge from Hurricane Katrina when Hurricane Rita struck just a month later.

A total of 160 Fair Oaks second-graders sang along to a music track of ``Louisiana 1927,'' a tale about the year's historic flood, revised to tell the story of deadly Katrina.

``I think this is something they're going to remember for the rest of their lives, that they helped children,'' Karen Ball said. ``That's what it was all about, kids helping kids.'' She wove a Louisiana history lesson into each practice.

The hurricanes died down, but the coalition's intensity has not. Schools in the local Sulphur Springs School District have adopted storm-damaged schools in Terrebonne Parish, and coalition members are mulling over disaster preparedness in Santa Clarita and more outreach programs.

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Kathy Hefferson of Canyon Country volunteers, above, at the Food Pantry in Canyon Country on Saturday. The pantry offers food to low-income families. Below left and right, low-income residents shop at the pantry.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News