Dear Editor:
On October 24, 2002 we took our first grade students on a field trip to Liberty State Park. While traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike on the bus trip back to Connors School, we had just settled down for what we thought would be an uneventful trip back to school. But then it happened. Some of our first graders began pointing out the window and shouting things like, “Oh, no!” “It can’t be!” “He’ll get hit by a car!,” etc. We strained our necks to look out the window to what had captured the students’ attention. And then we saw. It was a heart-breaking sight to behold for there running for its life on the New Jersey Turnpike was a medium-sized brown dog; its ribs clearly visible; its tired face resolute; its plight desperate. Helplessly we watched from the bus until the dog was out of our view.
But that dog is not out of our hearts. Many times since that October day our students have referred to him with sadness and with compassion. They have expressed a desire to help him and others like him. From their sad sighting, a fund-raising campaign has started at Connors School. It is called “A Dime for a Dog.” As the name implies, we are collecting dimes for dogs in order to make a donation on Valentine’s Day to the Liberty Animal Shelter at Liberty State Park.
We are asking those of you in the Hoboken community if you would consider joining your dimes with our dimes to give to the Liberty Animal Shelter. The first graders are making little “doggie banks” from recycled six-ounce school milk containers and would be happy to give them to any of you who would like to join us in our campaign to raise funds for the homeless animals. If anyone would like a tiny “doggie bank,” or to contribute some other way, please e-mail us at mgeorge@hoboken.k12.NJ.US or rrana@hoboken.k12.NJ.US and we will have the banks delivered to you.
As for the dog who did so capture the hearts of the first graders at Connors, we will never know what became of him. What we would like to believe is that somehow he found out that there is a shelter in Liberty State Park where he could find warmth, food, comfort and maybe even adoption into a loving home and that is where he was heading that day when we saw him running on the New Jersey Turnpike. We would like to believe that he reached his destination safely.
Madeline George, Ada Roman and Roseann Rana
First grade teachers at Connors School