Today, South Orangetown schools marked the 21st anniversary of 9/11 through the morning announcements, school-wide moments of silence, readings, music and class discussions that focused on heroism, compassion and service.
At Cottage Lane Elementary School, Denise Caunitz’s fifth grade class hosted the student-led Character Education assembly this morning with the help of CLE School Counselor Stephanie Chahales. “I work with the class on putting the assembly together. I help the class figure out what message they want to convey and what they want to teach the audience. For this assembly, it was important for the students to teach the audience about what happened on 9/11 and how many first responders and community members sprang into action that day to save many lives,” explained Chahales.
The theme for September is “Communities Spring Into Action” and throughout the assembly, students spoke of the heroic actions of first responders on 9/11 as well as local first responders who help our community every day.
This year, CLE started a new project with their students in collaboration with the Vetiquette program to recognize and thank first responders. Over the next two weeks, students will be decorating wooden hearts during class with messages of appreciation. The “Hearts for Heroes” will be distributed by Vetiquette to local police officers, firefighters and EMTs.
