Bears help soften blow of 9-11 tragedy
by Lenny Roberts

Like most of us, Nordhoff High School 10th-grader Jamie Garrett felt the pain experienced by New York City survivors in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, and began soliciting teddy bears to send to children whose school lies in the shadow of Ground Zero.
More than 650 bears were eventually donated or purchased with contributions collected from Ojai Valley school kids through Garrett's persistence, and shipped to the Bath Beach School earlier this week.
Lori Ponce, a teacher at Mira Monte School, said she became aware of Bath Beach School through her cousin, Michael Pertain, a New York City school psychologist, and told Sarah Garrett, also a Mira Monte School fourth-grade teacher and Jamie's mother, about the psychological needs of those children.
"Jamie got on a campaign to do something for the New York kids," Ponce said, "and decided the bears should go to that school."
Garrett explained that Bath Beach is a four-story school in Brooklyn, and all the kids above the second floor watched in horror as the planes flew into the towers and watched them come down.
"The school psychologist said that the trauma happened when the children witnessed it right across the water," she said. "A good portion of them couldn't go home for days. They lost loved ones who never came to get them. And, they're right near a military base, so when the base was shut down, they were trapped in the school."
Jamie Garrett, 15, said the idea to start her "We Care Bears" program stemmed from an earlier experience with a viral infection that affected her for nine months.
"A couple of years ago, I was really sick in the hospital and a couple of friends sent me a teddy bear. It was a really a great comfort to me, she recalled. "On Sept. 11, I began thinking about all the kids who would become orphans and how much that teddy bear meant to me.
"It was amazing how many people were excited about it at NHS. I find that its easier for kids to donate money than things. I couldn't believe how much money we collected and how much we could get with that money."
In the end, Mira Monte School children collected 125 bears, and the Nordhoff kids opened their wallets and contributed $1,407 for an additional 528 bears.
The collection began when Sonceriae Armstrong, who heads Nordhoff's Leadership Class, went to each classroom with cans during second period, and "people would just put what they could into the can," Garrett said, adding a thank you "to the whole community."

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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