around the uft
Sign of courage
Nov 15, 2007 12:27 PM
Among those at the ceremony are City Councilman Michael McMahon (second from left), Weingarten (center) and (back row, from right) Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer Lockhart and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott.
A street sign in memory of a profile in courage — a 6-year-old boy from Liberia — was dedicated on Oct. 20 at PS 57 on Staten Island, which hero Boimah Cooper briefly attended prior to his death in February 2006. Boimah Cooper Drive was named after the orphan who had been discovered by a group from the Staten Island Liberian Community Association during a humanitarian relief mission in February 2005. He was found crying under a tree with bones bulging from his back, unable to walk. One of his rescuers was Patricia Lockhart, a teacher and chapter leader at PS 57, who adopted Boimah and helped raise funds to bring him to the United States for spinal reconstructive and other surgery. Ultimately, however, Boimah succumbed to long-term untreated tuberculosis. At the street sign ceremony, Lockhart thanked the UFT for its assistance in paying for Boimah’s funeral expenses, and President Randi Weingarten for offering to travel to Liberia for the opening of the Clinton Foundation-supported school, clinic and playground in Boimah’s home village. “Boimah Cooper’s spirit was anything but frail,” Weingarten said. “It was powerful and beautiful and a lesson in love for us all.”
