By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — As the middle school students of Gary O’Neal’s class began to learn about the September 11 attacks in 2001, they were filled with questions.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
No one said that community service wasn’t going to be gritty — Hanna Hanke couldn’t help but utter “eww” as rainwater leaked from the trash she picked up with her classmates, putting forth community service as a tribute in honoring September 11th. Shown just left of center is Heidi Roussel.
They wanted to know and discuss what people were doing when the attacks took place and, though tweens and early teens, they put themselves in the shoes of others, asking their teachers “if we were in school, what would have happened that day?”
“And they asked ‘why would anyone do something like that?’” O’Neal said. His students utilized periodicals like Scholastic News and other resources tailored to their age to understand complex topics like terrorism, al-Qaeda, the Sept. 11 attacks and victims, and how America has changed in the 10 years since.
The more the students learned, the more questions they had for their teacher.
O’Neal told his students about the 9/11 Tribute Movement (911day.org) and asked if they’d be interested in participating; the students thought a tribute of community service would be a good thing.
And it was.
The middle school students volunteered their time scrubbing, picking up, organizing and cleaning their school, cleaning out closets, wiping down walls, picking up litter and assembling bulletin boards.
O’Neal will be registering the students’ tribute on the movement’s official website.
Mid-level student at the Limestone Community School Kaitlyn Beil wasn’t shy when it came to using a little elbow grease while cleaning the elementary wing of the Limestone Community School on Sept. 9; Beil’s classmates also donated their time that afternoon toward paying a community service tribute to the tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.
Limestone Community student Tiah Deschenes held open the trash bag for Tristan Hartzog while they, along with their fellow students, picked up litter along Main Street. Their community service was done as a tribute to honoring the Sept. 11, 2001 victims.
