Wenonah Students Make Books for Sick Children

Students from Wenonah Elementary School in Lake Grove, N.Y. delivered handmade children’s books to Stony Brook University Medical Center Monday afternoon. The books will go to sick children at Stony Brook's Long Island Children’s Hospital.

Combining Covey leadership skills with curriculum, second graders in Jaclyn Kearon and Traci Wilson’s classes paid it forward by designing the picture books that have stories with happy endings.

“With the Covey initiative in the district we thought it would be positive for the kids to bring it forward with something practical,” Wilson said. “No kid is too small to implement it and we really wanted to link in community service. We thought, what a better way to have them read and write, make their own picture books and deliver it to children who might not be home for the holidays.”

A handful of students, accompanied by their parents and teachers, read stories from the books in the main lobby at the hospital. One student, Marco Lascibetta, read his book proudly.

“I wanted to make the book so I could help make [the sick children] feel better,” he said.

“It feels really good,” added Alexa Abrams, another second grader.

Dave Aronow, a Sachem alum and resident, lent his services at Pilgrim Press to print the books.

“It speaks volumes for children in the community to reach out to other hospitalized children,” said Michael Attard, a certified child life specialist at Stony Brook. “To have a personalized story from an elementary school child to another is just a great thing. We get a lot of donations towards the holidays, but this is very unique.”

“[The Sachem students] really got into the project,” Kearon said. “This was something they put a ton of effort into and really worked from their hearts.”