Snowflakes for Sandy Hill

I taught elementary Art for 10 years.  Probably the best job on earth.

There were the times when a child would raise his hand mid-lecture to show me his brand new sneakers.  Or tell me about her new puppy.  Or the cupcake that Mom had put in the lunch box.  It was hard not to smile at these interruptions.

Once I had my back to the class trying to clean a particularly messy palette when I heard a noise behind me that sounded like a dove's coo.  It got louder.  I turned around to see what was going on when one of the children said "Look!  It's snow!!!!!"  Paintings were abandoned as we went to the window to watch.

After Christmas all the art sets came in so I could admire them and sometimes explain.  The proud new owners were soooo excited.

The parents being dragged around the school to look at the "student gallery" where artwork from each of my students would be displayed during open houses.

Always joyful, always smiles.

Maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around the senseless tragedy.  I've been trying to come up with something I can DO to help.  This is what I've found so far:

***Commit 26 random acts of kindness.

***The Sandy Hook Elementary School has suggested that people wishing to make a donation can forward it to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund at https://newtown.uwwesternct.org.

***The U.S. Postal Service has created a special postal address for this school community. You can forward mail and messages to P.O. Box 3700, Newtown, CT 06470.

or

***Finally, the Connecticut PTSA posted resources and tips on its site. For example, it came up with a plan to have students make snowflakes for Sandy Hook. If you want to run this as a student project at your school, you can send the snowflakes to the Connecticut PTSA at 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103, Hamden, CT 06514, by Jan. 12, 2013.



Thanks to the PTO Today blog for the addresses.