The students in Mrs. Carangelo’s 2^nd Grade class at St. Rose of Lima Academy in Short Hills, felt extremely blessed to return to school after Super Storm Sandy.  They arrived back at school with stories to tell about not having power, food spoiling and very cold nights. Through their discussions the children came to realize, that in spite of those circumstances, their lives were getting back to normal and were not much different than they were before the storm.  They still had their homes, their school and most of all, their loving families. 

Hearing about so many others who had lost so much, the class brainstormed ways to help those less fortunate.  They decided to direct their efforts to help students in Staten Island; a student to student campaign. The idea was to collect school supplies and necessities that could fit into a shoebox and then be given to individual students who had lost their belongings in the storm. Just like that, the “Sending Shoeboxes of Sunshine to Students of Hurricane Sandy“campaign was off and running!

 As the items arrived, they were sorted.  Some of the collected items were; notebooks, crayons, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, pens, scissors, glue, markers as well as hats, mittens, gloves, toothbrushes, toothpaste and socks.  Each student also wrote a personal note to be put inside the shoebox with all the supplies.  The students gave up their recess time to fill the shoeboxes and were so proud of their efforts when they saw just how many shoeboxes they were able to stuff!  The 20 “Shoeboxes of Sunshine” were then delivered to Archangel Michael/St. Mena Church in Staten Island by our student teacher, Miss Sherry who lives there.

Being able to send some “Sunshine” to others after the storm certainly made the children feel great as they knew they were doing exactly what Jesus would want them to do. 

In closing, a quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta “What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”