Small hands craft a big statement with red, white and blue paper, ribbons and beads.

Small hands craft a big statement with red, white and blue paper, ribbons and beads.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
As the nation bands together, drawing strength from unity and numbers, even the youngest Americans are showing their true colors, in an endless display of red, white and blue.
After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon a month ago, Jacqueline Futey, a teacher at St. Charles School in Boardman, started selling purple ribbons with peace doves to benefit the American Red Cross. That is important, observed Mandy J. Comstock, a 13-year-old pupil, but she wanted to display her patriotism in the spirit of Old Glory.
Stringing red, white and blue beads on yarn, and fastening the yarn to safety pins, the seventh-grader fashioned American flag pins and distributed them to family members and a neighbor.
"I'm working on more," she said. "I plan on making enough for our whole family and the whole seventh grade."
Her progress was slowed when she fell and dislocated her right shoulder. Stringing beads is difficult with an arm in a sling, Mandy said. "I've worked on it, but it's taking me longer."
Other pupils' efforts: Three fifth-graders at the school had similar ideas. Michael Lynch, Allison St. George and Monica Scarsella made red, white and blue pins from beads and ribbon for all of their classmates.
At Lordstown Elementary School, second-graders got into the spirit making giant American flags that fill a wall of windows in each of their two classrooms. The flags, made of colored paper, are equally impressive from the street where they greet travelers along state Route 45.
The idea to make the flags grew out of classroom discussions about the significance of the American flag, said teacher Sue Hill. The children were learning about the symbolism of the 50 stars, 13 stripes and the colors, she said, "and it ballooned into why don't we put a flag on our front window."
Two days after the terrorist attack, one of her pupils, Rachel Corbin, 7, brought in red, white and blue pins that she and her 10-year-old sister made for all of their classmates. Rachel's sister, Chelsea, is a sixth-grader at the school.
Zack Wells, 8, a second-grader in Mary Jo Montana's class, had the same idea. He made red, white and blue pins for his two grandmas, his teacher and his bus driver. Making the pins was his mom's idea, he said, and he might have made more but "it was a lot of work." One pin, Zack elaborated, took "all night" to make.
Fund-raising activities: Pupils throughout the school, which houses grades K through six, collected "Dollars for Democracy" the week after the attack, Montana continued. Each of the 299 pupils was asked to donate $1 for the American Red Cross Disaster Fund. They exceeded their goal by more than 100 percent, collectively donating $604.
Faculty got into the act too, donating $720 to New York City's Ladder Company No. 3. That fire station was chosen, Montana said, because it was the closest to the World Trade Center and many firefighters from that unit, some of the first rescue workers on the scene, lost their lives, including her husband's cousin, Jeff Giordano.
Pupils from Mary Haddow Elementary School on Youngstown's east side collected $400 to help school children displaced by the terrorist attacks.
Children from New York's Public School 150 were so close to the World Trade Center that they saw some of the horrible things that happened that day, said Kate Good, Mary Haddow's principal.
"We heard a story that one child ran into the school shouting that the birds are on fire. It was people jumping from the tower." Those children have not been able to return to their school, they've been holding class in churches and other buildings, Good said.
Children at Mary Haddow were touched when they learned about those children losing their school. "One little girl from first grade donated $20, which is a lot, so we called her home to make sure they knew she'd donated that much," Good said. "Her mom said that they'd talked about it, and she wanted to donate all of the money she'd collected from the tooth fairy."
Bracelet makers: Sixth-graders at C.M. Musser Elementary School in Sharon, Pa., have given up part of their lunch period to manufacture red, white and blue friendship bracelets. Proceeds from sales of the bracelets will go to the Sept. 11 relief funds, reported Principal Michael Calla.
Three girls spearheaded the project, which has elicited 100 percent participation from their classmates, Calla said. Most sales come from pupil orders, but Pat Catan's Craft Stores, where the pupils bought their supplies, also sells the bracelets to shoppers.
Thus far, sales of the bracelets, which cost 50 cents each, have raised $110.
Children at C.M. Musser have also decorated the school with red, white and blue stars, made American flags, dressed in patriotic colors and written letters of thanks to local police and firefighters.
All three elementary schools in Sharon are collecting coins for relief efforts, Calla continued, and an all school assembly Nov. 9, will honor veterans, police and firefighters.
At Stadium Drive Elementary School in Boardman, fourth-graders collected bottled water and granola bars for rescue workers. All 462 pupils in grades K through four colored flags that are displayed at Toys "R" Us, which donated $1 to relief funds for every flag collected, said Principal Michael Notar.
First-graders at Stadium Drive taped their recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance for a local radio station, Notar continued, and sent cards to firefighters and police officers in New York.
Every child at Reilly Elementary in Salem made red, white and blue hand prints that create a chain of helping hands all the way around the building, said Dr. Gay Fawcett, principal.
The children at Reilly are so young -- grades K through three are housed at the school -- that many of them don't understand the implications of the terrorist attacks, she said. They are aware of them, but the tragedy is very much removed from their worlds.
Therefore, the focus at Reilly has been on talking about treating others with dignity and respect and learning the Pledge of Allegiance and patriotic songs such as "America, the Beautiful."
"The Star-Spangled Banner," Fawcett noted, is too difficult for most of the children in her school.