THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 12, 1995 TAG: 9511120142
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Paul South
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
As last week began, hate was on a roll.
Yitzhak Rabin, the warrior turned peacemaker, was dead, killed by a nut on Israel's political fringe.
Closer to home, elections that should be new verses in the eloquent song of representative government turned into trash-talking
barroom brawls.
But this morning brings hope for a brighter day because of the children at Kitty Hawk School. Thanks to a school-wide effort spearheaded by two fifth-grade classes, 311 shoeboxes are on their way to the children of war-torn Bosnia.
Those containers hold items that you and I take for granted. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, even a small teddy bear or toy to bring smiles to faces more often streaked with tears.
So it is with the children of Bosnia.
To understand why the children of this north beach community completed the monumental task of collecting the mountain of boxes in just four days, you must meet Zlata Filipovic.
As some of you may know, Zlata, at the age of 10, kept a diary of her life as it was torn apart by civil war. To many she is known as the Bosnian Anne Frank, named after the Jewish girl who kept a diary of life in hiding during World War II.
For teachers Debbie Whitfield and Sharon Davis and their students, young Zlata brought the Bosnian conflict home in heart-rending realism.
``We read excerpts from her diary,'' Whitfield said. ``They weren't the normal concerns of a normal 10-year-old. She wrote about how her family went for days without electricity, and how they rejoiced when her father found a stick of wood to go into a wood stove he had found.
``We read about the fear she felt each time her mother had to cross a bridge amidst gunfire to go to work every day, and how scared she was each time she heard an explosion from another part of the city where her grandparents lived.''
Whitfield said the class was so moved by excerpts from Zlata's book that they wanted to help. By accessing the Internet on the school computer, they were able not only to send messages to Zlata, now living in Paris, but they also learned firsthand about the needs of Bosnian children.
Thanks to a North Carolina-based ministry, they were able to help.
``My sister lives in Boone, and works for Samaritan's Purse, a ministry headed by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son,'' Whitfield said.
``Their shoebox program sends boxes filled with things children need to Bosnia, Rwanda and Chernobyl.''
The 3-year-old program has collected 500,000 boxes for children in those destitute parts of the world.
The two fifth-grade classes at Kitty Hawk ran off fliers, made speeches to other classes, and collected the boxes, all in less than a week.
``The kids had two days to get to 28 classes and tell them the story of Zlata and what they were trying to do,'' she said. ``Then we had two days to get the boxes together. The kids did it on their own. But it would not have happened without the support of the administration.''
On Thursday of last week, the boxes were gathered. Friday morning, they were off to Boone, final stop Bosnia.
``It was like Christmas,'' Whitfield said. ``There have been a lot of tears. But this shows that there is more joy in giving than in receiving.''
Every child's box is special, carefully wrapped with every item inside selected with tender care. And in an age when greed seems the rule rather than the exception, there were extra-special boxes.
``There was one little girl who had received $10 for her birthday, and she used that to buy things to put in her box. Another got a $35 gift, and used it all to buy things for the box she would send. There has been a lesson in this for all of us.''
And at a time when hate seemed to be winning, when biting rhetoric tore at our hearts, and extremism seemed set to triumph over reason, some Kitty Hawk schoolchildren, and their caring teachers, taught a different lesson.
They brought a tiny sparkle of joyous light to the dark, hollow eyes of the children of Sarajevo. And provided a small sweet taste of what peace is like.
``This made us feel we made a real global contribution,'' Whitfield said. ``We're going to continue to be involved in our own community. But this taught the kids that we really can make a difference.''
Score one for love. by CNB