Coming through in a time of need
Chapter leaders at the Sept. 27 citywide meeting contributed more than $5,500 to the UFT Disaster Relief Fund to help hurricane victims.
First Book giveaway at PS 323, Brooklyn
More than 700 parents, teachers and children took advantage of the First Book giveaway at PS 323 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on Oct. 7.
FirstBook giveaways at PS 105 in Brooklyn and PS 15 in Manhattan
Nicole Barone will be a first-year teacher at PS 748 this fall, but she got a jump on building her classroom library by going to the FirstBook event co-sponsored by the UFT at PS 105 in Borough Park, Brooklyn on June 10.
Health clinic opens at UFT Community Learning School in Manhattan
A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the opening of a new school-based health clinic on May 11 at the Community Health Academy of the Heights, one of the UFT’s 28 Community Learning Schools.
Community garden project at PS 157, Brooklyn
It took more than a decade of fighting, but community activists, including Elba Cornier, a science teacher at PS/IS 157, succeeded in turning a small vacant lot in the Bedford-Stuyvesant/East Williamsburg section of Brooklyn into a green space the neighborhood sorely needs.
Students at PS 18 in the Bronx receive free goodie packs
“It was as if the children had won the lottery,” said Sophy Aponte, the UFT Teacher Center coach at PS 18, a UFT Community Learning School in the Bronx that received a donation of school supplies on April 21.
Help and hope rise from the ashes for beloved custodian
Even after a Jan. 12 blaze gutted his Bronx apartment, his family members escaping with only the clothes on their backs and landing in a Harlem homeless shelter, custodian Ralph Nelson reported to work at his Flushing middle school, just as he had for 39 years.
Claus for celebration
When that other iconic winter figure — Queen Elsa — glided into the room at the holiday party thrown by the UFT and the Coalition for the Homeless at union headquarters on Dec. 12, children gasped and cheered as if they had just seen Santa Claus himself.
‘What Thanksgiving is about’
The decibel level was off the charts as 150 children from homeless shelters across the city celebrated Thanksgiving at UFT headquarters on Saturday, Nov. 21, before heading home with new winter jackets, scarves, hats and gloves donated by members and others.
UFT, First Book book giveaway in Brooklyn
They came with oversized bags and shopping carts, waiting patiently in the unseasonably cold weather on a line that stretched around the block.