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Thursday, September 27, 2001
By Carmen J. Lee, Post-Gazette Education Writer
At Paynter Elementary School in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District, nearly 750 youngsters spent an afternoon this week writing words of encouragement and drawing pictures of hope.
While youngsters across the country probably have done the same since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Paynter pupils were the first to participate in the "Expressions of Hope" program organized by the southwestern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross.
Local Red Cross officials are distributing project starter kits to elementary schools in Allegheny and Washington counties. The packages contain paper for children to express their feelings of hope for the victims and families of the tragedies and gratitude to emergency workers and volunteers.
Each sheet has a border with the phrase "Join us to help our nation recover" printed repeatedly in red and black, the Red Cross colors. At the bottom of the page is the American Red Cross logo and a place for youngsters to write their names, grades and schools.
Some pupils' messages and artwork will be sent to New York City and Washington, D.C., while others will be displayed locally, said Red Cross spokeswoman Jill Berardi.
"Their work will be placed where emergency workers, families and volunteers can read them," Berardi said. "This is meant to help them see hope, and to see it through the eyes of children."
The project also is designed to give local children the chance to express themselves about the tragedies, provide opportunities for teachers and school officials to talk about them and offer schools a way to help during this time of need, she added. The youngsters' work must be submitted to the Red Cross by Oct. 15.
Betty Taiclet, principal at Paynter where the Red Cross program kicked off, said the pupils at her school "have almost a feeling of relief that they can put something down on paper."
"These children have so much pride in America and they do understand the freedom, especially because they have children around them from diverse backgrounds who are refugees," Taiclet said. About 70 youngsters at the school have immigrated from Bosnia, Iraq, Vietnam, Sudan, Liberia, Eritrea, Somalia and Pakistan, she said.
Among the letters was one from a fifth-grade girl named Jelena who fled with her family from war-torn Bosnia when she was 3 years old.
Taiclet read from the girl's note: "I came here to have freedom and to forget about war. God bless America and all the people who died."
In addition to soliciting schools to participate in the project, the Red Cross is looking for organizations and businesses that will display the students' work, Berardi said. For more information about "Expressions of Hope," call 412-263-3154.