The UFT's Middle Schools Division, in partnership with the city Department of Education, hosted a Thanksgiving Luncheon for 200 students who live in transitional housing on Nov. 23 at UFT headquarters in Manhattan.
 

“It has always been my firm belief that little hands can make a big difference in the world,” says Nicholas Taranto, the media teacher at PS/IS 235 in Flatbush, Brooklyn.

MS 57 Chapter Leader Nicole Smith’s idea to help 47 young Bahamian college students, driven from their homes by Hurricane Dorian in September, quickly morphed into a community effort.

The UFT Middle School Division’s annual Thanksgiving Holiday Feast and Winter Clothing Drive for homeless students demonstrates what Thanksgiving is all about.

Florence Conlon wore a UFT Strides T-shirt over her pink sweater, and a pink bandanna was wrapped around her neck — wise choices for a chilly overcast day at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. But the most important accessory Conlon wore was the sash with one word printed on it: "Survivor."

The UFT’s Brooklyn borough office — and everyone inside — was decked out in pink on Oct. 2 for its fourth annual Making Strides Shine and Dine event. The festive program is a way to thank the schools that raised more than $1,000 apiece for the American Cancer Society the previous year as part of the union’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign.

Tanya Sumner, a teacher of English language learners at PS 204 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, was just 36 years old in 2017 when she unexpectedly passed out behind the wheel of her car. Sumner, the mother of a 5-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy, woke up in the hospital to a devastating diagnosis: Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, which had already spread to her spine and hips.

Harlem Week is special for Charity Phalo-Davis. A teacher at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice in Morrisania, she strolled through the yard at PS 175 in Harlem with her husband, Quincy, and their 2-year-old son during the event’s Children’s Festival on Aug. 18.

The line stretched around PS 160 in Jamaica, Queens, and down the block at the UFT’s First Book giveaway on June 1. The incentive: 40,000 free books.

For many people, civics is synonymous with social studies. But the UFT's teacher working group on civics education feel strongly that the lessons of civics are applicable in every classroom.