Like all the others, I would like to express my condolences for anyone who was personally affected by the terrible tradegy that happened this past week.
As a PTO, we felt that we had to do something to help. I spent all of this afternoon on the phone calling all 11 schools in our district. We are going to all co-sponsor a community-wide blood drive in about 3 weeks.
We are also going to start a monetary collection on monday morning to get the kids at school involved (since they are too young to donate blood). A lot have expressed interest in wanting to help out in some way. We are calling the project "TIME FOR CHANGE" and asking all students to bring in their loose change. We will collect the money until we have the blood drive and then present it to the Red Cross directly. We plan on using the media to advertise the event.
It has been an incredible few days for everyone. I'm sorry I'm late getting in on this topic, but I have to say I was extremely pleased with the way our school, (grades 5 & 6), handled this unfortunate event. Each staff member was permitted, depending on the make-up of their class, to allow the students to view the events as they occured. Some chose not to, as they knew some of their students had parents who were out of town, and even in New York. Others, my child's teacher included, chose to watch with them and have open discussion as events occured. When my son, (11yrs), came home that afternoon, he was very well informed and not at all frightened. I attribute that to the fact that this event was handled openly and not discussed by staff in whispers in the hallways. Next week, the students will be having a week long bake sale at lunchtime to earn money to donate to the Red Cross. They have been through a tornado, so the students know from experience what the Red Cross does in a disaster situation, and they are very excited to be able to contribute.
We've been unbelievably saddened by these events. All of us here share the emotion of "wanting to do something/anything" to help.
As to your specific questions about getting in touch with other schools, I'm not sure that we can be of great help. We don't have that kind of direct communication link. You can certainly feel free to use this Discussion Forum to share ideas and make connections -- I hope it helps. I'd think that if you want to connect directly with a North Jersey school (many, many WTC employees live in Jersey) or Manhattan school or similar, then you could find those schools contact info. on the Web.
JHB - the idea of a national effort would be neat. Trouble is that we're too late for our October issue and next issue isn't until January.
I recommend connecting with/donating to the Red Cross in this great time of need.
From PTOtoday: our best to all the victims, their families, and our country.
Amazingly, our school was having a teacher duty day Tuesday but the school district was under lock down. I'm in Denver and my parents live very close to Omaha Neb. so my oldest was scared when she heard the President was heading there. Very quiet without the airplanes.....
Hey Tim-
Is there a way we can send messages to the schools in the East to let them know our kids our thinking of them. Either a way to send e-mail or snail (very right now) mail cards or just messages. As an adult, I can write a check and give blood but my 10 year old daughter is asking "How can I help, Mom? Will they take my blood, too?"
How are you doing? Tina
Is anyone interested in thinking of an idea collectively (something easy to launch like Nevadamom's posting), give it a catchy name, and doing it as a national group under the loose umbrella of PTO Today? (PTO Today could provide the communication means via the forum and maybe some publicity via the magazine.)
Not only could our schools help, but they could be part of a larger effort not tied to anyone organization, state, etc. Each org could put as much or as little effort as desired. Is this too ambitious? Is it just easier to go with the local efforts?
Our board is discussing the idea of a drive to raise funds for the Red Cross or Salvation Army, maybe a nickel or loose change drive so all the children can contribute. We think this may help them feel that there's something they can do to help, and I hope we can get all the schools in our district involved. If we all get involved, we could be a powerful force!
