Local PTA Seeking Help for Children from Silver Spring Explosion

When children head back to school in Montgomery County on Monday some of them will return with new challenges. Families affected by the August 10 explosion and fire at Flower Branch Apartments are being relocated, but some of the parents still need help getting school supplies and other necessities.

The PTA for New Hampshire Estates Elementary and Oak View Elementary has organized a donation drive for about 19 families whose children were enrolled at their schools and Rolling Terrace Elementary. The public can help in the following ways:

1. Go to the New Hampshire Estates – Oak View Elementary Schools PTA home page and click on the blue button for fire victims on the right side.
2. Make out a check to NHE/OV PTA and write Long Branch Fire on the memo line. Mail the check to NHE/OV PTA,
   400 E. Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20901

El Golfo school supplies drive
PHOTO | Erin Taylor

PTA treasurer Erin Taylor reports the group has raised more than $5,200 in contributions for the students. The families have also received about $1,000 in gift cards to meet their more immediate needs.

A school  supplies drive took place at El Golfo Restaurant in Silver Spring August 15-20. The PTA plans to provide long term support for the children and families who lost their homes and much of what they owned at Flower Branch Apartments.

Numerous county and state agencies are continuing to provide support for families displaced when a natural gas explosion destroyed two buildings at the Flower Branch Apartments in Silver Spring.

Local PTA is donating school supplies to Silver Spring families affected by August 10 explosion and fire. @mymcmedia https://t.co/ZueNioDmpl

— Phyllis Armstrong (@MyMediaPhyllis) August 22, 2016

About Phyllis Armstrong

Phyllis Armstrong is a multimedia journalist with more than 30 years of experience in writing, reporting and broadcasting. She covered a wide range of news interests and issues as a general assignment reporter for WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. from 1984 to 2009. Phyllis has continued to produce feature stories about local restaurants, culinary professionals and minority achievers for several online publications. Cooking, reading and Tai Chi are among are favorite things to do.

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