Students come through for Sandy Hook
Newport-Mesa students have pitched in with schools across the U.S. to create a blizzard of support in the form of paper snowflakes, welcoming those displaced from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
After winter break, students from Sandy Hook — where a gunman shot 20 students and six adults — will be relocated to a nearby school.
The Connecticut Parent Teacher Student Assn. asked schools across the nation to show their support in a simple way: taking scissors to paper and cutting out snowflakes to decorate the new school.
On Dec. 19, Newport-Mesa Unified School District asked if their students, teachers and staff would show some tangible support by mailing hand-made snowflakes to Connecticut.
Schools pitched in individually, too. Newport Harbor High School hosted a snowflake-making day, and College Park Elementary School collected snowflakes of their own to send before winter break, said district spokeswoman Laura Boss.
Newport Harbor High staff originally told Boss about the Connecticut PTSA’s snowflake project, she said, and the district jumped on board, even hosting a snowflake-making day at its administrative offices.
The program was initially scheduled to run until Jan. 12, but there are already enough snowflakes to overflow the school, according to the Connecticut PTSA.
“We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity from around not just the country, but the world. At this time, we have enough beautiful snowflakes to blanket the community of Newtown,” reads a statement on the PTSA’s website. “Please take this idea and your snowflakes and create a winter wonderland of your own in your community as a show of solidarity for our Newtown families.
Newport-Mesa did suggest another way to support Sandy Hook students: donate to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund for Newtown and the families of victims.
More information is available at newtown.uwwesternct.org.
Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck