East Brook Middle School: Home Front supporting the Front Line
How it Began . . . the story of Tomorrow's first Responders

The terrorist attacks on September 11th had a tremendous impact on our school population, as we are located less than 10 miles from New York City.  Many relatives and friends worked in or near the World Trade Center and none of us will ever forget those agonizing hours waiting to hear if our families were safe. Days later, my traditional PowerPoint assignments seemed to blur in the wake of this national disaster.  As many students were personally affected by this tragedy, I refocused projects to deal with the emotions of the aftermath.  The children combined meaningful songs with photos to produce an amazing array of tributes. To share our work, we have held four anniversary events entitled, "Night of Remembrance & Hope". Local community officials, Police and Veteran Honor Guards, First Responder groups, US Navy, US Marines, faculty, families and students come together to remember those that perished and show appreciation for those who work each day to keep us safe.

The Global War on Terror impacted our students as well.  A father serving in Iraq and an uncle serving in the Navy made us realize that we had others to thank, and so . . . OPERATION GOODY BAG was born to physically connect the HOME FRONT with the FRONT LINE. Our idea was simple . . . a brown lunch bag colored with patriotic designs and filled with poetry, puzzles, personal letters and candy would be shipped to America's First Responders. In November of 2003, our first shipment totaled 1,187 Goody Bags. We were proud of what we had accomplished, our task was done. But the arrival of the first thank you note proved to be an inspiration to continue. This email was sent from a military compound in Northern Iraq. The soldier had watched the video of our “Night of Remembrance” show that we had packed in his carton of Goody Bags and wrote: “I watched your video. It was awesome and inspiring. All of you are truly great American heroes! I agree that soldiers are heroes—but all of you are heroes, too. Here’s why: You are our future. You are the ones that will carry on the traditions of our forefathers. You are the ones that will never allow our freedoms to be taken away. You are our hopes, our dreams and our future. Thanks so much for your kindness! I’ll be in touch…..” F.A.

This note pushed us to continue and we haven’t stopped yet. Our partnership with the US Navy has helped to facilitate the shipment of these Goody Bags to over 29,000 soldiers and sailors.

My thirty-five year career followed a winding path from my first 8th grade science classroom to a 4 day cruise on a naval warship. Surprisingly, it was the Hanger Bay of the USS Iwo Jima that proved to be the defining moment of my teaching career.

It was 7:00 p.m. on the third night of our voyage.  Our "Night of Remembrance & Hope" was about to begin.  The size of the crowd was unusual for us, over 700 Marines and Sailors strong, but I was sure that my students could handle it.  The lights dimmed and they did what they did best, express gratitude.  The audience cried, sang, shouted and danced. As a finale, we joined together to sing God Bless America and the children beamed with pride. Helped by a few Marines, my staff tossed 800 Goody Bags into the group. As they were thanked, hugged and congratulated by more than one teary-eyed Marine and Sailor, they experienced first hand that they were making a difference in the world.

Please check out our WEBSITE at

www.operationgoodybag.org
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