Community Comes Together To Help Moore Teachers Displaced By Tornado

After the May 20th tornado wiped out Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary schools, a group of women raised in Moore decided to put together a fundraiser to give the displaced teachers hope.

"The fact that they laid over these kids to protect them is just incredible, and we want to do what we can to bless them," said Laura Atterbury, co-founder of Restore Moore: Project Teacher.

Complete Coverage: May 2013 Tornado Outbreak

Atterbury's son was a 6th grader at Briarwood, and the teachers are her friends.

"Their classrooms are their homes, and the other teachers that they work with are their family," Atterbury said. "A lot of them had damage or lost their homes as well and they lost their classrooms and they're school family."

Atterbury and her group of friends with children in Moore Public Schools created Restore Moore: Project Teacher to give all the teachers at Briarwood, Plaza Towers and some from Highland East Junior High, money to buy whatever they need for their classrooms.

"Our goal is to cover each teacher with at least $500 of monetary gifts or gift cards, so that they can go purchase the little things that they're not going to get like curtains, a rug or something they need in their kindergarten class," said Brandye Taylor, co-founder of Restore Moore: Project Teacher.

There are roughly 74 teachers who lost classrooms in Moore. Tara Van Hauen, Ginger Musick, and Amy Greco are also co-founders of the project, who hope to raise enough money to send them back to school with ease.

"We want them not to be worried about where they're going to get the stuff to teach or do the science fair projects," Taylor said. "We want them to be able to just love on those kids because it's going to be hard emotionally for them anyway."

There are several ways you can help Restore Moore Project to help the group reach their $35,000 goal for this upcoming school year.

Gift cards and monetary donations can be mailed to Restore Moore: Project Teacher PO Box 891385 Oklahoma City, OK 73189 or at www.bankofoklahoma.com under the Restore Moore: Project Teacher account number 309436715.

Contact the group on Facebook.