Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for August 30, 2008 CLEAN-UP PROJECT

Cairo High Alumni Work to Clean up the Town

By: Mike Shain

CAIRO, Ill. - Is it possible? Cairo is a town known more for what's wrong than what's right. But some Cairo High School alumni could be about ready to change that.

A new internet site invites Cairo High graduates to sign in and 753 have taken the invitation.

Attorney Jeff Jackson asked his classmates "What can we do to rebuild Cairo?" His blog received a lot of mail and suggestions.

Saturday morning several dozen people will gather to start cleaning up trash from the streets around McBride and Elmwood apartments. Work begins at 9:00 to be followed by a barbeque at the park.

Carolyn Kluttz, Cairo High Class of '86, is one of those involved. A nurse in the student health center at Southeast Missouri State University, she's married to a physician with a daughter in medical school. Cairo is special to her because, "My mom still lives there." She's sickened to see what's become of her hometown, a place she loves.

She'll be working at McBride Saturday morning. Clean-up in other neighborhoods will follow. And the alumni group is talking about creating a mentoring program that would welcome professionals who graduated from Cairo to return and work to get more students into college.

"Anything we do to make a difference, a small difference, makes a difference," Kluttz said.

It may seem like an impossible dream but "making a difference" begins Saturday.