NORTHERN VALLEY—Words of empathy and caring, and a smiley face, marked just one of dozens of letters exchanged between two classes of third-grade pen pals following one of America’s darkest days: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
When airliners were hijacked, then flown into the World Trade Center in Manhattan — murdering nearly 3,000 people — and into the Pentagon, and a fourth was downed by passengers into a field in Shanksville, Pa., students in a third grade class at Circle Center School in Yorkville, Ill. wondered what they could do to help their fellow third grade students in the New York City area cope.
As documented in the newly released 39-page “United States of Friendship: Pen Pals of 9/11,” two veteran educators show how their third-grade classes, nearly 900 miles apart, became pen pals and friends. The classes wrote to each other for a year, offering caring and smiles and words of hope.
The book is the work of Julie O’Connor and Elaine Mroczka, then teaching third-grade at PS 48 in New York City and Yorkville, respectively.
O’Connor told Northern Valley Press in late May, “When we came upon the 20th anniversary [of 9/11], my pen pal teacher, Elaine, and I decided to write this book together. We wrote this book for anyone who is interested in a unique story about that time, and we wanted to show the power of reaching out to others with compassion.”
She added, “Because the Covid tragedy isolated people, Elaine and I wanted to remind people of a time when we all felt unified.”
Mail call
The package of letters that O’Connor’s class received was addressed to “Any Third Grade Class, Any Elementary School, New York City, New York.”
Mroczka said she was unsure if they’d reach their intended destination.
O’Connor said that she was surprised to receive such a large envelope of letters.
“I was deeply touched and knew that my students had to return the kindness by responding,” she said.
She added, “New Yorkers have a reputation for being tough and gruff, so to speak. However, I excitedly tore open the letters, not acting ‘cool’ at all. I handed out the letters at random, and my students were instantly motivated to learn about this far off community of rural Illinois,” O’Connor writes in the book.
One Yorkville student’s letter, dated Sept. 13, 2001 briefly transmits its message.
“Dear Third Grader: We know you are scared. That is OK. We are scared too. We are very unhappy. I am very sorry for your Loss. I hope none of you third graders got hurt bad or you’re parents. We wish you peace. Peace be with you,” reads the message that ends with a smiley drawing.
The book switches back and forth with descriptions from Mroczka, in red text, and O’Connor, in blue.
Overall the book shows views of the towers burning, the Ground Zero 9/11 Memorial, the two classes, and their teachers who taught a lesson in kindness for third graders all across America.
O’Connor and her husband moved to Tenafly two decades ago and have have twins in the Tenafly public schools.
She’s an English Language Learner (ELL) teacher and district coordinator for the Cliffside Park Public Schools. She has a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and master’s degrees from Mercy College and the Bank Street College of Education. She earned her doctorate in education from Northcentral University for her study of humane education — the teaching of character education that includes animal welfare — and has spoken at Oxford University and the New Jersey Teacher’s Convention, among other conferences.
She’s director of educational programs for the Animal Protection League of NJ (APLNJ), and is vice president of The Humane Education Committee Inc.
Her Tenafly council term expires Dec. 31, 2024. She’s liaison to the Board of Health, Environmental Commission, and Tenakill Swim Club.
Mroczka says she was raised in a large family in Central Illinois, was named Most Influential Educator, and was named in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.” She retired in the mid-aughts, with 37 years’ teaching experience, to travel the world.
Still making connections
In one featured newspaper article excerpted in the book from O’Connor’s visit to Mroczka’s class in Yorkville, O’Connor said, “When they were writing to their pen pals, it was a safe outlet for them to express what they really were feeling.”
She said, “I remember one little girl drew the Twin Towers with a sun, and the sun had a sad face on it. That’s very communicative; I didn’t know the girl was feeling that way.”
The pen pals were featured in the New York Times and on NBC’s “Today.” The correspondence showed how reaching out with concern and caring holds lessons for us all, the teachers noted.
They said they almost made it onto “Oprah.”
O’Connor wrote, “The 9/11 attacks were designed to induce fear and sow insecurity in people but they did not succeed due to people like Elaine Mroczka and her class. As opposed to feeling helpless, they took action. Her class made us feel empowered through writing about our feelings and knowing that everything would be okay. We would rebound and come together as a country.”
O’Connor said she hoped that her former students, now in their late 20s, “continue those acts of kindness that they showed each other all those years ago.”
She said she and Mroczka “have spoken a few times a year since 2001. I will probably set up a group online and see if there is a way to reconnect with that group of students.”
Meanwhile, in the book, Mroczka said the project’s publicity “probably [has] encouraged other people to reach out and ‘do something good’ to help others! Like ripples on a pond, our little act of kindness spread far and wide! Possibly the world could be a better place because of our third-graders’ example!”
“United States of Friendship: Pen Pals of 9/11” (2022, Fulton Books, Meadville, Pa.) is available at Amazon, Apple iTunes store, Google Play, and Barnes and Noble. It is available in paperback ($16.95) and for Kindle ($8.49) on Amazon.