School announces memorial plans

Seeking donations to honor

Philip MOnahan and Rosalinde Johnson
By:Sally Goldenberg
   Triangle Elementary School will memorialize the recent deaths of a student and an employee by expanding the school’s library to include items that represent hobbies of the deceased — third-grader Philip Monahan and Clerical Assistant Rosalinde Johnson.
   To honor Philip, who died on Labor Day last year from health complications, the school will set up a library of books on tape. Principal Charlene Weicksel said he preferred books on tape to reading.
   "He preferred sports to school," she added. "He always enjoyed having others read to him."
   To honor Ms. Johnson, who died on July 4 from health complications, the school will open another section of the library for CDs and cassettes of easy listening and classical music.
   "If you knew Roz. you just knew that she always loved music," Ms. Weicksel said. "She was always singing at her job, humming a tune. She sang in her church choir."
   The school will use donations of money, cassettes and CDs for the two new sections of the library, which are underway.
   The school opened a memorial section in the library of Spanish books when two students died in an airplane crash to Colombia in 1998.
   Ms. Weicksel said the dedications are a positive way to deal with death in the school.
   She added, "That’s the most important message we can send to children is we need to seize the time to learn."