PHOENIX — Pamela Tellez finds the images of a fire-ravaged Maui, Hawaii particularly distressing, where the once vibrant tapestry of businesses, homes, and schools now lies in ruins due to a relentless wildfire.
“When you look at those aerial views, everything is gone,” explained Tellez.
The CTA Freedom Elementary Health Assistant says that includes the homes and businesses of her own family.
“My cousin's husband grew up in Lahaina, so everything he knows as a child and a young adult is gone,” said Tellez. “They have in-laws that have lost their homes, lost businesses, their boats, their way of life.”
While much of her family is safe from the fires on the opposite side of the island, her heart breaks for those that have lost so much.
“This is just a little message from the mainland saying we’re with you, we support you,” said Tellez holding up a handmade card.
Out of that pain has come a heartwarming lesson in empathy. It’s unfolding as pint-sized pupils at CTA Freedom wield their pens as instruments of comfort for the children of Lahaina.
Students ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade are putting their heartfelt thoughts onto paper, creating hundreds of handmade cards they hope can lift spirits.
“Losing your home and losing some of your friends and losing your school can be hard,” said 11-year-old Scarlett Wall.
In her letter, she gently reminded them that they were not alone and wrapped it up with a light-hearted joke.
“To cheer them up because it’s kind of hard to smile in a tough time so on the back I just wrote remember to smile,” said Wall.
Inside Courtney Bickley’s kindergarten class, children are picking the perfect-colored crayons to finish off their personalized creations.
“We brainstormed things that they could write, things they could say, things that they could draw that makes them feel happy that would make other kids their age feel happy as well,” said Bickley.
As these young scholars script a symphony of shared sorrow and unwavering optimism, they’re showing how the ABCs of compassion can also spell out a path to healing.