Two school districts in the Lehigh Valley have experienced the competitive edge with an ongoing rivalry between the two as Parkland High School and Emmaus High School recently fought a tough battle on the football field.

Both school districts have now experienced catastrophic losses within the last year.

Parkland School District’s bus garage caught fire in February totaling 16 school buses and damaging 10 others resulting in school cancellation.

EHS recently experienced a massive flood from extreme weather conditions which has resulted in no classes at the high school for a week for remediation.

When Parkland had their fire, many messages were received expressing care and support. One particular message was received from the East Penn School bus drivers who sent a basket of snacks and a letter of support which meant a lot to the Parkland bus drivers.

With the flooding at EHS, Parkland, in turn, provided their support. The school bus drivers and garage mechanics collected items such as soda, water, juice, snacks, granola bars, office and school supplies.

Three different groups came together to participate in this effort.

The garage foreman and some of the mechanics remembered how East Penn sent their support and wanted to do the same. A meeting was held by the union support staff and several bus drivers remembered the kind gesture from East Penn during the bus garage fire. All three groups came together and set up a collection site for items.

The delivery was made Nov. 9 to EHS.

A Facebook post on the East Penn School District site showed a photo of the donations and the following message Nov. 10: “Our hearts are full! Thank you to the Parkland bus drivers for sending over goodies for our staff and school supplies for our students. Heartfelt gestures like this will get us through our weekend push to get the building ready for Monday!