Bracelets show a common thread of support

Ground zero workers wear the colors of their grief, their country and names of McDonald children who want to help.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
McDONALD -- An astonished school secretary at Roosevelt Elementary School didn't get the police officer's name when he called Wednesday morning.
But through a thick New York accent, the officer's words and heartfelt meaning as his voice choked with emotion came through loud and clear.
Mary Kay Scufka got the call from a New York City policeman and one of his fellow officers, calling from a NYPD station. They wanted to express their thanks and relay those sentiments from their fellow officers who received braided bracelets in red, white and blue -- made by the 415 Roosevelt school pupils in grades kindergarten through sixth, and sent to New York.
The officers, New York City firefighters and American Red Cross workers at ground zero are wearing the more than 1,000 bracelets made out of yarn or embroidery thread by the children from Roosevelt.
The policeman told Mrs. Scufka that officers are wearing the bracelets around their badges next to a black mourning ribbon. Each bracelet has stapled to it a tag that says "Roosevelt Elementary School, McDonald, Ohio," and each child wrote his or her first name and last initial on the bracelet tag.
An idea: Bonnie Nagi's son, a fifth-grader at Roosevelt, talked to her Sept. 11 and in the days afterward about how he felt about the attack on the World Trade Center.
Nagi's friend Candy Rusinowski, mother of another fifth-grade boy at Roosevelt, compared notes. Both of their sons were asking questions.
Nagi said the children had a common desire to do something to help.
"I thought, if my child felt that way, probably others did too," Nagi said. Those feelings, it turned out, were infectious among Roosevelt pupils.
Two days after the attack, the ball was rolling. The mothers obtained permission from school principal Anthony Russo to have the children make the bracelets, bought the materials themselves and worked with art teacher Andrea Mason.
Ten parents volunteered to help, and by the next Monday, pupils were making bracelets, three apiece -- one to keep and two to send to New York. Their work was done by the end of the school week, and Nagi sent the bracelets and a letter of explanation to the Red Cross.
Different recipients: The original intent was to send the bracelets to the New York City gifted pupils who attended classes at the building next to the World Trade Center and witnessed the attacks. Nagi said she doesn't know whether the pupils had been put in different schools since the attack, but the fact that Red Cross and safety workers at ground zero got them is fine, she said.
The NYPD officer told Scufka that he had received a bracelet from a fourth-grader at the school, Lexi W., and his fellow police officer, who stood by as the call was made, had a bracelet from a second-grader, Cassie W.
Scufka said she thinks the officer gave her his name, but she was so surprised that she does not remember it. "He was so thankful, and very choked up when he talked to me."
She said the officer also told her, "You just can't believe what this means to them."
He asked for an address for the school so that a thank-you can be sent to the pupils.