A preschool makes holiday cards for their neighbors at Kent Jewish Center Preschool, where parents were shocked by a hate crime in St. Petersburg.
By PETER SCHWEITZER
Published December 18, 2003
Children in the prekindergarten class at Kent Jewish Preschool hold up a thank-you banner they helped create on Wednesday, after receiving Hanukkah cards from preschoolers around the corner at A Rainbow of Love Learning Center.
[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]
CLEARWATER - It was a random act of kindness that touched hearts and rekindled faith.
With the help of teachers Stacy Pio and Dawn Kidwell, 3-year-old students at A Rainbow of Love Learning Center made Hanukkah cards for the nearby Kent Jewish Center Preschool.
The cards read, "Happy Hanukkah Greetings from your friends around the corner at A Rainbow of Love Learning Center."
They were delivered Tuesday morning, and the timing could not have been better.
At the Kent Jewish Center, the adults were still shocked by a weekend hate crime in St. Petersburg. During the night Saturday, vandals cut holes through a series of vinyl posters from an exhibition titled Coexistence. The art was part of a Florida Holocaust Museum exhibit that had been shown in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland and South Africa. There was never a problem until it came to St. Petersburg.
Making the greeting cards had nothing to do with the weekend vandalism. The teachers at Rainbow of Love say their kids simply enjoy doing things for others.
"We were doing an art project and wanted to give our neighbors a Christmas present from our class," said Kidwell, who has been at A Rainbow of Love for four years. "The kids were so excited about the project. They couldn't wait to send the cards. We were teaching the kids about different holidays that are celebrated this time of year."
Although the gesture was coincidental, the impact at the Kent center was no less powerful.
"We were so touched," said Jorie Massarsky, preschool director of the Kent Jewish Center Preschool. "It means a lot that they acknowledged our holiday, especially after the vandalism. I was very sad and embarrassed that I live in a place where people would do such a thing. I felt personally violated."
Massarsky said that "in this season of joy, peace, love and understanding, it's nice to see some of those feelings expressed. Their kindness is making us respond in kind. We're making a holiday banner for them."
Susan Traub has taught prekindergarten at the Kent Jewish Center for 13 years and was moved by the gifts from the Rainbow of Love preschool.
"When I heard the news about the vandalism, I was angry, sad, and disappointed," she said. "I left South Africa almost 23 years ago. This is the kind of thing I had hoped to leave behind. I experienced racism and anti-Semitism growing up in South Africa. If you spoke out against apartheid you paid for it. I didn't want to raise my two sons in such an environment. The vandalism brought back bad memories for me."
But the gifts renewed her faith.
"I try to believe in the innate goodness of people," Traub said. "I feel that people basically have a generosity of spirit and a sense of caring and concern."
Laura Neilson, a Lutheran and prekindergarten teacher at the Kent preschool, was pleased with the children's gesture.
"It felt wonderful, especially because it came from the 3-year-olds," she said. "Kids have no prejudices. Adults teach prejudice. Hopefully, we can all teach our kids to have no prejudice."
