CHINA GROVE — When people are in need, students at Carson High School won’t sit by — even if it’s the first week of school.

In less than five days, the school collected 160 cases of water and nearly $400 for those affected by Hurricane Harvey, and teachers say the drive is far from over.

The water drive was organized through the school’s homeroom — or “CATS” — classes. School officials say the classes are an opportunity to teach students compassion and kindness.

“The whole thing behind CATS is teaching kids the right thing to do,” teacher Jeff Street said.

While Carson’s drive might be just “a drop in the bucket” of need, Street said, if others also reached out to help, a lot could get accomplished. And that’s the lesson he hopes students will take from the drive.

Street helped organize the drive with help from fellow teacher Mark Riley, who has family affected by Harvey. Riley’s nephew lives just east of Houston and lost his home to the floods.

Riley said it’s going to take a lot for Texas to get on its feet again, and he hopes people don’t lose the willingness to help.

“We’ve got to be persevering through this thing,” he said. “Because people are going to be needing help for quite a long time.”

As class let out Friday afternoon, a student walked up to Street and quietly passed him a $10 bill. A few minutes later, a teacher told him she left some money in his box. Street said it had been like that all week at the school.

Roughly 60 collected cases have been loaded into a truck and are on their way to Texas. Carson’s former school resource officer, Reese Helms, has family affected by the hurricane and agreed to take the shipment.

As for the rest, Street and Riley say they’re trying to get in touch with the Red Cross to donate the water and money they collected. While the school is collecting other items for donation, they decided to ask for water because it’s relatively easy to find a case of water for under $5.

“That’s something easy,” Street said. “That’s something every kid has.”

Carson will be collecting donations until the end of the school day on Friday.

“If everyone does their part, we’ll really be able to help everyone that’s affected,” Riley said.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.