Recovering also has been made much easier for New Yorkers thanks to the unprecedented outpouring of affection and support from communities across the nation. Of particular help in schools, says social studies teacher and UFT chapter chair Neil Marks, have been letters of encouragement and condolence from students in other communities.

Other support has come in the form of books, supplies and equipment from individuals and corporate America. The UFT has been coordinating the collection of books and supplies and equipment for the eight schools relocated by the disaster. "We've received packages of supplies from individual teachers and classes around the country," explains UFT vice president David Sherman, who is coordinating the effort. Corporations also have given generously: 300 backpacks for kids from Coca-Cola; 6,000 pounds of books from Time Warner Inc.; rugs from ABC Carpet for children to sit on during reading lessons; videos from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, just to name a few. The AFT's state affiliate, the New York State United Teachers, also sent hundreds of backpacks and book bags. "All of this is in addition to the larger fundraising that we are all involved in for the families of members and others who've lost loved ones," Sherman says.

AFT Recovery Fund will aid victims of Sept. 11 attacks

The Sept. 11 attack has taken a terrible toll on all Americans and on AFT members. Because of the need for immediate help, the AFT has created the AFT Recovery Fund to provide assistance. The fund will be used primarily to assist AFT members and their families. In addition, we will support efforts that are under way to assist victims, rescue personnel and others in need.

In addition to the AFT Recovery Fund, the AFT and the NEA have joined together to create a mechanism to address the long-term needs of families in both unions--especially the children. It is called the NEAFT September 11 Fund. At some point soon, we will deliver any unused funds from the AFT Recovery Fund to the NEAFT September 11 Fund.

Make checks payable to AFT Recovery Fund and send to AFT Recovery Fund, 555 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001. Contributors will receive AFT's own American flag bumper sticker to acknowledge your donations.

Among our fallen--34 PEF members and three D.C. teachers

Hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was asked to estimate the number of people killed. "More than any of us can bear," he replied. Tragically, it was an estimate that was very close to the truth for the nation, the city and for this union as well.

Weeks after the attacks, as AFT On Campus went to press, rescue workers continued to comb the site of the World Trade Center as hope for signs of life faded. Among the missing are 34 members of the AFT-affiliated New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), who worked at the WTC. Known with tragic certainty is that three public school students in Washington, D.C., and their teachers, all AFT members, perished when terrorists flew the plane they boarded that morning into the side of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.

Also certain is that the attacks claimed the lives of many loved ones. A preliminary poll of just one-third of the schools in Staten Island, one of New York's five boroughs, reveals that 28 teachers lost spouses--many of them fire, police and rescue workers who put themselves in harm's way to save others. It is a grief that will be shared by thousands of New Yorkers, including schoolchildren who lost parents, grandparents and other loved ones in the horrendous act.

All of these people will remain in the thoughts and prayers of this 1 million-plus union, which is marshalling an unprecedented relief effort on behalf of the victims.

Also never to be forgotten is the heroism of the communities, and of AFT members in particular. The attack in New York forced the immediate evacuation of 8,000 students in eight Manhattan schools. Thanks to their teachers and other school staff members, not a single child was injured; all made it safely back into the arms of loved ones.

As Francine Cornelius, a teacher and chapter chair at one of the elementary schools closest to the World Trade Center, puts it: "We did what we do every day. We kept [the students] safe...even when ash turned everything black."