West Amwell School staff to volunteer at ground zero

By: Mae Rhine
   WEST AMWELL — Fifteen members of the West Amwell Elementary School faculty will be at ground zero Feb. 16.
   They will take supplies brought in by students and their families since Sept. 12, including gloves, hats, chapstick, etc.
   They also will bring a check for $300 for the Coins for America fund-raiser to continue to purchase more of these supplies.
   It will be a long night for the faculty, which includes Superintendent Tony DeCanzio. The group will be at the Hamilton train station at 5 p.m., paying for their own parking and tickets to New York City. Then, they’ll meet at St. Paul’s Chapel at 7:45 to begin their 12-hour shift at 8 p.m.
   The trip is being organized by school office worker Patti Michalchuk, who has volunteered at the chapel 11 times already since Sept. 11.
   "I first went there through the New Brunswick Presbytery," she said. "Your pastor serves as the clergy for your group" at the chapel.
   In her case, it was the Rev. Paul LaMontagne of Mount Airy Presbyterian Church in West Amwell.
   "When my pastor talked about it, he didn’t ask for volunteers," she recalled. "I said I’d do this."
   She recalled telling her husband, who knows how much she loves New York City, she may never visit the city again after Sept. 11.
   "I didn’t think I’d ever go again," Ms. Michalchuk said.
   The group at the chapel helps the workers at ground zero by providing hot beverages such as coffee, warm clothing such as gloves, scarves and hand warmers and aspirin, cold relief and first aid supplies; making beds for those sleeping at the chapel; posting cards and letters; and offering markers and tissues to visitors signing memorial banners.
   "This is part of that need we all have, to want to do something to help," Mr. DeCanzio said.
   He recalled Sept. 11 at the school, saying he got a phone call from a resident. He turned on the television and watched the disaster unfold.
   After consulting with faculty, he decided to tell only fifth- and sixth-graders, allowing them to watch TV "only briefly" as staff explained what was happening.
   "There was a lot of not understanding" among the students, he said. "They didn’t understand the magnitude at that time. We didn’t dwell on it that day."
   As the tragedy continued to unfold, the school incorporated it into its curriculum, for example, comparing the tragedy to the last time there was an attack on U.S. soil — Pearl Harbor — and the devastation it caused.
   That’s when the students began to grasp the tragedy of the situation and wanted to help.
   However, in his 21 years at the school, Mr. DeCanzio said he felt the explosion of the Challenger had a "horrendous impact" on the students, more so than Sept. 11, perhaps because the entire school was watching the launch on television that day.
   "There was so much confidence in the space program," Mr. DeCanzio said by way of explanation.
   All in all, he added, the students handled the events of Sept. 11 "very well."