HOBOKEN– Jean Connors and Karen Jedinak, both retired teachers from Monroeville, PA., donated some 300 bookbags filled with supplies, scarves, hats and notes from PA kids to Connors students Tuesday.
In sheer irony, Jean Connors reached out to a teacher she knew in Hoboken, who taught at Wallace school and asked which school in Hoboken suffered the greatest Sandy devastation. Connors was told, Thomas Connors, which just happened to be her brother-in-law’s name. Connors was in.
“I said we had to do something for kids,” Connors said. “My friend said how about Thomas Connors, which is the name of my brother-in-law.”
Connors and Jedinak teamed up and created a Facebook page for the kids helping kids outreach. They recived close to 300 new bookbags, as well as supplies, gloves, and hats. They also included handwritten notes from their kids to Hoboken’s kids, wishing them well.
Stefanee Wolfsie, social worker at Connors School, along with Principal Gerald Fitzhugh and secrataries Maritza Ramos and Alicea Santaigo, organized the donations Tuesday and passed them out according to grade.
Connors and Jedinak rented a van and brought the many bags of donations to Hoboken themselves and stayed to watch the faces of the children light up while they received their gifts.
Another box is still on its way for Connors school, from Disney World, Florida where another friend of Connors and Jedinak, lives. The excess of bookbags and supplies collected on behalf of the kids helping kids efforts, will be donated to a school in Union Beach, NJ.
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