Staff Writer

Jeanne Ellinport went to bed a week ago last Monday, grateful that her parents had heeded New Orleans' evacuation order, happy that the city seemed spared from Hurricane Katrina's fury.

When the Gaithersburg resident awakened the next morning, she learned otherwise.

The home in which she grew up was located 200 feet from the break in the 17th Street levee. Her family sold that house a few months ago, but to Ellinport "the unimaginable has happened."

Much of her family safely evacuated to Atlanta, but for some members of her extended family, nothing remains. The family discovered the whereabouts of one of its own from a photo on the front page of The New York Times.

Her father, meanwhile, has "survivor's guilt."

So Ellinport, 35, is "doing as much as I can from afar" to help her native city.

She has teamed up with a Bethesda family for Project Backpack, which is collecting bags full of supplies for schoolchildren and others affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Steve Kantor of Bethesda said his wife, Aileen, and their daughters ‹ 14-year-old Jackie, 11-year-old Melissa and 8-year-old Jenna ‹ were watching television coverage of Katrina victims at the Superdome on Wednesday of last week and thought it would be a good idea to give children a "backpack filled with stuff they could use."

The next morning, the Kantors decided they would make that brainstorm a reality, sent e-mails to their children's schools and their synagogue, Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County in Bethesda.

The project took off.

By press day on Tuesday, they had doubled their goal of collecting 1,000 backpacks, the number of drop-off points had expanded exponentially throughout the Washington area (www.projectbackpack.org), and 10 other cities had joined in the effort.

Kantor said it has grown so much that they "flew up bubbe from Florida to help with the project."

Ellinport said the bags for kids include books, school supplies, a deck of cards, a toy and other items children would want. She said some of the backpacks she has collected have been "really sentimental," with one child, for instance, contributing his first Beanie Baby.

In addition, diaper bags are being collected for babies ‹ filled with items such as bottles, diapers and wipes, rattles and formula ‹ and duffel bags for adults, with toiletries and clean underwear and socks.

In addition to Project Backpack, Ellinport, a former Jewish liaison in the Clinton White House, has joined with three other local women from The Big Easy for "Taste of New Orleans" (www.helpnawlins.org).

The four women will prepare their favorite New Orleans dishes for anyone who brings a gift card that can be used to buy supplies for displaced New Orleans residents, from stores such as Sears, Home Depot or Wal-Mart. The first event is scheduled for this Sunday.

In Rockvillle, one family has collected more than 1,000 stuffed animals and dolls to bring to New Orleans evacuees who are expected to come to D.C.

Somewhat like the Kantors, Karen Lipsy said her two daughters, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School students Rachel, 16, and Shaina, 14, saw some children clutching teddy bears during the television coverage and decided to collect stuffed animals for children caught up in Katrina.

"We wanted to give them that security blanket back again," she said.

They posted a couple signs in their Rockville neighborhood, and sent e-mails to lists of members of their synagogue, Tikvat Israel, and JDS families, alerting them to a drop-off on Labor Day morning.

The response was overwhelming ‹ they have filled more than two dozen plastic bags full of animals.

In addition to helping with collection efforts and contributing tzedakah, a number of the Jewish day schools in the area have offered free tuition for Jewish families who evacuated the Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Katrina. At least two schools will be accepting new students in the next few days.

Gesher Jewish Day School of Northern Virginia in Fairfax will be welcoming second- and fourth-graders who are relatives of current Gesher students, said head of school Zvi Schoenburg.

Sharon Sherry of Fairfax, aunt of the two new students, said her brother was "in tears" when she told him of Gesher's offer. She noted how important the "normal, stable environment" will be for the children after their "whole world has been turned upside down."

"It makes you understand how important it is to be a part of a community," Sherry said.

At Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, headmaster William Altshul said two elementary school-age children will be attending his Rockville school as a result of the storm. Altshul said the family had not even heard about the free tuition offer, but had called looking for a Jewish day school after evacuating New Orleans for the Washington area.

He said that while some of the academy's classes are "pretty full, we will manage."

Meanwhile, Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and Georgetown University graduate Yael Hartmann was scheduled to find out by today whether she would be stationed in New Orleans as part of an Israel Defense Forces unit.

Hartmann, a captain in the Israeli military and head of the North American desk in the IDF's media and communications department, said she would be joining a group of about 80 doctors and psychiatrists with experience in treating victims of natural and man-made disasters.

The group has treated casualties of the wedding hall collapse in Israel, and last year's Asian tsunami, among other missions. The group would be in addition to supplies and other equipment Israel is sending to the United States.

The 28-year-old Hartmann, who grew up in Bethesda, said traveling to New Orleans so soon after the "emotional" Gaza disengagement would be difficult, but noted that the United States has always offered help in the wake of disasters in Israel, and in turn, Israel is always "by the U.S.'s side."