Anatolia Aids Greek Fire Victims

It was a Thanksgiving with a difference; or rather, a traditional Anatolia Thanksgiving, only more so.

In the latter days of August, after prolonged hot, dry weather, Greece was struck by devastating forest fires, in the Peloponnesian peninsula and on the Aegean island of Eubeoa. The fires destroyed 670,000 acres of forest, olive groves and farmland, and burned many villages, leaving 68 people dead. It was the country’s greatest humanitarian and ecological disaster in many years.

Greeks and philhellenes worldwide responded with economic aid and other offers of help. At Anatolia the impulse to help was immediate, and the response carefully planned. After deliberation, the school decided to assist a region in Eubeoa that had not received as much attention as regions further south. As it happened, the mayor of one of the affected villages in the area was planning to be in Thessaloniki in the latter part of November, at the time of the school’s annual Thanksgiving dinner. Anatolia extended an invitation.

Every year at Thanksgiving Day morning assemblies, Anatolia students are asked to donate money to help others. The money typically goes to soup kitchens, orphanages, or the like in Thessaloniki; the student councils themselves decide, in consultation with their Deans. This year the councils decided to pool their donations for the benefit of the fire victims. A collection was also made at the annual Thanksgiving Day dinner the school provides for faculty, staff, local trustees, and their families.

The dinner itself, held in Ingle Hall, began with welcoming remarks by President Jackson and Executive Vice President and COO Dr. Panos Kanellis. Georges Lysarides, Vice President for Secondary Education, then announced the intention of the school to purchase computers and other educational equipment for schools in the villages of Mistros and Theologos in Eubeoa. He introduced Mr. Giannis Bourodimos, Mayor of Dirphion, of which the villages are part, who movingly described the tragedy that had struck his town and expressed his thanks for the help that had been offered, including Anatolia’s. “It has been a comfort to us,” he said, “to know that we have not stood alone.”