Bill’s Word: A Holiday Reflection

Dear Friend,

The tragic event in Newtown occurred the day after our monthly Adopt A Classroom presentation day. I spent Thursday, December 13th with happy, cheering kindergartners and first graders. In fact, look at the picture taken by Kathie Woulfe at one presentation – happy smiling kids – our kids. My last presentation was made outside in the Kindergarten play yard at Haight to cheering Kindergartners. I got many hugs from the beautiful students. One little boy even said, “Thank you, sir, for the money.”

The next day the tragedy occurred. I thought of our kids and the families of the murdered first graders, the teachers and principal of Sandy Hook. The horrific event troubles me greatly. I want to continue making our kids and teachers smile and laugh. I want more young students, like one last week who came up to me while I was grocery shopping, to say “thanks for bringing the money to our class” and tell me “we are going on a field trip.” I want to keep in my thoughts the young high school teacher who was crying so hard with tears of joy when she received her adoption she couldn’t say thank you. I want the sad and troubling thoughts of last Friday’s tragic event to wane. I do not ever want what happened to the kids at Sandy Hook to happen again.

Your support of the Alameda Education Foundation has enabled us to make many kids – and teachers – smile and enables us to continue to make a positive impact in the lives of our precious students, but we will save those stories for another day.

For now, let me just wish each of you a safe and peaceful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Bill Sonneman