Schools

Wildwood Students Send Messages of Hope to Fellow Elementary School Impacted by Hurricane Sandy

Students from Wildwood Elementary School in Puyallup sent cheerful cards to an elementary school in Manhattan struggling to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

For children who have lived through a devastating hurricane and spent weeks after the storm with limited or no electricity, receiving hand-drawn cards of well wishes at their school from students thousands of miles away “means more than you will ever know,” said their school principal.

In fact, PS (Public School) 195 Manhattan Beach Elementary Principal Bernadette Toomey said she was so touched by hundreds of messages of hope sent this fall by Wildwood Elementary School students that she displayed all 500 of them on a bulletin board in the school’s main entry.

“Each and every one of them will touch our children in a positive way,” said Toomey.

The school is located in Brooklyn, NY in an area hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, which plowed through the East Coast in November and landed a direct blow on New York City and parts of neighboring New Jersey.

Manhattan Beach Elementary closed for a week after the hurricane, Toomey said. While there was no damage to classrooms, half of the school auditorium that faces the bay was submerged in water, and a boiler shut down.

When the school reopened, some students from other harder-hit areas showed up to learn and planned to remain enrolled until their neighborhood schools reopened. The clean-up process could take months, said Toomey.

Days after Manhattan Beach reopened, Wildwood Elementary School’s package of handmade cards arrived.

“Their messages of hope are just wonderful,” she said.

Sixth grader Blake Camacho’s message was simple. He drew a cheerful yellow flower on his folded piece of paper and wrote, “There is HOPE!”

Fourth grader Liz Cordes wrote, “PS 195. I hope you get well soon. Love always, Liz.”

Sixth grader Matt Olson wants students to know that they aren’t alone. He drew a single red heart on the front of his card and wrote, “We are only 3,000 miles away, and we care and have hope for you!” 

Wildwood Elementary School’s Student Council, made up of 32 students, coordinated the card project in the aftermath of the hurricane. All 500 students in preschool through sixth grade were invited to make a card.

The activity “helps students to understand that there is a world outside of themselves,” said Vicki Egeland, a paraeducator (teaching assistant) and the school’s Student Council adviser. “For those that heard about the hurricane or saw the images on TV, it gives them an opportunity to share messages of hope, caring, and friendship.”

This isn’t the first time that Egeland has worked with the Student Council to coordinate a schoolwide response to a tragedy, both nationally and internationally.

Just before winter break last month, the entire school sent thank you cards to the police officers and firefighters in Newtown, Connecticut who were among the first to respond to the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“It will help them know that they have people out in the world who care for them,” said fourth grader Mya LeValley.

Wildwood Elementary students also sent cards and letters to police officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel after the World Trade Center attack in 2001, as well as cards to students in the South affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

After the Haiti earthquake in 2010, students packaged health kits with basic necessities such as toothbrushes. They also raised more than $1,000 for an orphanage in southeast Asia after the 2004 tsunami that devastated the region. 

Egeland said she chose Manhattan Beach Elementary to receive the students’ cards this fall because the school is among many in communities that were in the hurricane’s direct path. It is also similar in size to Wildwood Elementary, serves elementary-age students, and is the same area that lost many firefighters in the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

“The principal was so gracious and appreciative when I told her what Wildwood wanted to do,” Egeland said.

Toomey said she plans to have her students reciprocate soon by writing thank you letters to their new friends at Wildwood Elementary.

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