11/21/2012 - Thanksgiving Message from your PTO

Dear parents,

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, hearing the news from Israel each day, we can't help but think about all that we have to be thankful for this year. Sometimes we need to be reminded to focus on what is really important.

This weekend, the 4^th graders were working on the novel "City of Ember," answering questions about the chapter that they had just read. One of the statements that they were asked to analyze was:

"The citizens of Ember may not have luxuries, but the foresight of the builders, who filled the storerooms... ensured that they will always have enough, and enough is all that a person of wisdom needs."

This led to a discussion of "wants" vs. "needs" and what "wisdom" really means in the context of the quote above. The 4^th graders really had to think about what is a luxury and what is really needed to live. With what is happening in Israel in the background, several of us explained to our children that life, health, safety are what we need and what we have, while others still struggle daily with these things.

A former Wornick parent is currently in Israel visiting her sister, who just had a baby. This weekend she posted the following:

"I leave Israel early tomorrow morning with a very heavy heart and a knot in my stomach. This has been a week full of extreme emotions. I met my new niece for the first time but she was welcomed by hundreds of rockets fired with the intention to kill. My sister in Tel Aviv had to think twice this morning about sending her toddler to pre-school calculating the distance to the safe room and how long it might take to retrieve him if needed. In the evening she had to pull him out of the bath naked and dripping water as the siren went off and they scrambled to the safe room. This is not what a mother should need to worry about; mothers in the south have been worrying like this for months and years now!"

"Many of our friends have children in the army, who are heading south along with thousands of civilians recruited overnight back into reserve duty. There is a tangible anxiety in the air and a horrific pre-war feeling. Please kiss your children tonight and pray for a better tomorrow."

This post, from a member of our community, says it all. Our hearts go out to Israel at this difficult time, and our prayers are with those who have loved ones there, struggling to protect their family. Let us be thankful that our children are not growing up hearing sirens, and that they do not know the sounds of rockets or bombs raining down on them and those that they love. Our children are growing up without the phrase "safe house" being part of their daily vocabulary. We will sit down for a Thanksgiving meal with our family, without worrying about it being interrupted by violence.

We at PTO are thankful not only for our immediate families, but are thankful to have our extended Wornick family. We wish all of you a peaceful holiday.

Your Wornick PTO: 

Michele Stafford; Laurie Hepler; Lisa Wachtell; Rebecca Schwartz; Lily Avida; Dominique Rhodes and Sara Feinberg.