u Children work to understand tragedy through volunteer effort
By NOREEN GILLESPIE
News Writer
When his mother tries to explain the tragedies at the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C. to him, Collin Junk listens carefully.
But if you ask him what happened in New York, he doesn't remember much. He can tell you that airplanes crashed into buildings. He can tell you that the buildings fell. He knows that people died, but he doesn't know why.
"I don't know," he continually replies, even though he's talked about the tragedies in school and with his mom.
But what he does know is that there are people in trouble, and he wanted to help. So Junk, 7, along with nine friends from his neighborhood, teamed up to be volunteers at Saint Mary's Oktoberfest Run/Walk Tuesday, where runners and walkers were competing to raise money for the families of injured and deceased firefighters in New York City.
They handed out cups of water to heavy-breathing and sweat-drenched competitors, and cheered loudly to encourage the athletes to the finish. They decorated their station in red, white and blue crepe paper and balloons. Some even showed up in American flag T-shirts. And while the kids, ranging in age from 4 to 10, may not understand everything about Sept. 11, they took their jobs very seriously.
Screaming "Water! Water!" at passing competitors, they made sure anyone who wanted refreshments wasn't missed.
"They said they wanted to do something to help," said Barb Westra, a secretary in the Modern Languages department at Saint Mary's, who organized the effort after hearing about a need for volunteers. "I saw the advertisements and this was something that everyone could do."
Westra's two children, Nicole, 9 and Mitch, 5, asked her what they could do to help after seeing the tragedies in the newspaper and on television. Close to a month after the terrorist attacks, her children are still asking questions, trying to understand something that many adults don't comprehend.
"We've had to explain what happened at home, and we say prayers for the families at night," Westra said. "My son will ask questions out of the blue a couple of times a week about it … you just have to explain it on their age level, and not go into too much detail."
Explaining the terrorist attacks has also been a challenge in the Keywood house. Dee and her son Josh, 7, have talked about what the tragedies mean several times.
"I've just told him that some really bad people don't know how to deal with their anger by talking, and they deal with it by violence," Dee said.
Volunteering was a way to help her son understand the attacks, and also see why coming together as a community – and a nation — is important.
"They know about the heroes that died, but when they see [their parents] involved in things like this, they want to help, too," she said.
But some kids, like Jenna Simon, 9, know exactly what happened on Sept.11, and can recount the events in sequence.
Simon watched the coverage all day in her third grade classroom. She remembers the questions students asked her teacher as they watched the towers fall on television.
"They asked if a lot of firemen died," Simon said. "[My teacher] said probably … they were running up the stairs to save the people and the building exploded."
Simon, who had one aunt who worked in the Trade Center and another who lived a mile away, said both of her relatives were safe. She knows, though, that there were people who weren't.
"It's scary," she said. But she's hoping her volunteer efforts will make a difference. "Maybe the money can buy medicine … or stretchers to put the people on," she said.
Standing amid a pile of discarded yellow water cups, deflated balloons and water-drenched tablecloths, the group walked away from their station pretty proud of themselves.
And even if they don't have all the answers, the volunteer team did get one reward Tuesday. Straggling behind the last runner, the kids arrived back at Angela Athletic Facility and were greeted with high fives from the South Bend fire department, waiting at the course's end to congratulate the littlest volunteers.
All News Stories for Wednesday, October 3, 2001
