feature stories
Heart-warming
Jan 31, 2008 4:36 PM
A mighty human spirit burns in the developmentally disabled and autistic kids at the Roy Campanella Occupational Training Center, aka PS 721, in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Sifting through clothing collected for the Slat and Sea Mission are (from left) paraprofessional Lyubuv Kleyner, teacher Elisa Ferraro, student Ashakki Brown and para Alexis Noel.
Turn-keying the love and guidance they get at school, they’ve turned the tables on diminished expectations to help the frail and the needy in their community and beyond — part of their “Let’s Make a Difference” campaign.
Their most recent whistle-stop was the Sephardic Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Bensonhurst, where the kids brought down the house with their lip-syncs, juggling displays, conjuring tricks, flag displays, dances and even a few of the kind of jokes that we wonder why we laugh at but love hearing over and over again.
Barbara Amadure’s students look forward to collecting pajamas for babies in homeless shelters or orphanages. Other kids round up clothing for the Salt and Sea Mission or pass the hat for the Penny Harvest, the largest child philanthropy program in the United States.
Para Katherine D'Anna (second from left) and teacher Kristine Halligan (right) with students working on the Penny Harvest.
The walls and hallways and classrooms at Campanella are bursting with exuberance. Student-made signs, hand-decorated boxes and bins overflowing with donations shout out with faith and charity.
“These kids are the salt of the earth,” school-based coach Elyse Abramson said. “Just in the last couple of weeks they sent personalized cards to the elderly, brought offerings of toys and books to hospitalized kids, sent messages of hope and support to our troops and finished up some old drives and started some new ones with hardly a break for lunch. And our terrific staff works relentlessly to help these kids help themselves and to help others.
“Satisfaction doesn’t get any purer than this. Our kids, like all youngsters, have their share of healthy bravado. They tackle down-to-earth problems but they also chase rainbows. The smile they bring to others is their pot of gold. That is the purest form of core knowledge and our kids are experts.”
The Roy Campanella OTC is named for the Brooklyn Dodger catcher who, after a Hall of Fame baseball career, stared down paralysis from an auto accident and channeled all his invincible energies into helping others heal. The school is a perfect match for its namesake. Its surrogate name could be “Magnet School for Making the World a Better Place.”
Wendy Weiss, the principal, says, “The popular refrain of our kids is ‘I love helping other people.’”
Chapter Leader Cathy Allone (left) prepares for a bake sale to raise money for the troops with student Ashley Weldon and teachers Linda Rubino and Tess Millares (right).
Natasha Brantes’ students collected old cell phones to be donated to Cure-for-Cancer, an organization that helps children afflicted with the disease.
Tina del Rosario’s autistic students deliver food to homebound senior citizens all year long, and those in Etya Shutyak’s class hand-presented holiday cards to residents of the Flatbush Senior Center and marveled at the glow in the eyes of elders when they were told that the cards were theirs to keep.
Chapter Leader Cathy Allone, who will retire on Feb. 1 and will be replaced in that role by Marilyn Reich, acknowledged her good fortune to have worked there.
“I am so proud of everyone in this school,” Allone said.
Joining students with pajamas collected for homeless and sheltered children are (from left) paraprofessionals Genya Gelman, Sandra Carlson and Danielle Carlucci.
