VALHALLA, N.Y. (PIX11) -- It was one of the most tragic school-related episodes ever in the tri-state area, but on Monday, students from the Farmingdale School District turned tragedy into gratefulness in a big act of kindness three months after a bus crash changed the school district forever.
Cards, drawings, notes, and other artwork from students in the district were delivered by the superintendent and other Farmingdale school leaders to medical staff at Westchester Medical Center. The doctors, nurses and other staff who received the messages of thanks had saved the lives of 40 Farmingdale High School students after their bus careened off Interstate 84 in Waywayanda in Orange County on Sept. 21.
On Monday, weeks of loving handiwork by children from the school district resulted in 15 boxes of items delivered to the health care heroes at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital of the medical center.
Farmingdale's superintendent, Paul Defendini, opened one of the boxes that he'd driven from the school district to the hospital, a 52-mile journey. He pulled out a bright yellow piece of construction paper, with the shape of a child's two hands on it, in bright green emblazoned on it.
"These are our kids' hand prints," Defendini said, from a podium in a large conference room at the hospital on Monday afternoon. "[It] says, 'Thank you for always holding our hands, because that's what you did."
Defendini was joined by Farmingdale High School Principal Jed Herman and the high school's nurse, Joanne Kelly. They read and gave out some of the drawings, cards, and keepsakes that children in the district had made for the medical staff at Fareri Children's Hospital, as well as for the lifesaving staffs at Bon Secours Hospital in Port Jervis, St. Anthony Hospital in Warwick, Garnet Hospital in Middletown, and St. Luke's Hospital in Newburgh.
All of the hospitals had worked together to respond to the emergency that injured the 40 students --- a dozen of them critically or seriously -- and which took the lives of beloved band teacher Gina Pelletiere, and longtime chaperone Beatrice Ferrari.
On Monday, representatives from some of the other hospitals were able to join in the thank you presentation with Westchester Medical Center Fareri Children's Hospital staff.
Donna Worflar is the director of emergency nursing at WMC. Her response to the thank you messages was emotional.
"It's overwhelming, actually," she said. "[I'm] a little teary right now. It's incredibly overwhelming because you know, in any tragedy, these are children."
The 15 boxes brought to the hospital on Monday were a small fraction of what's been made. Students in the 5,800 school district made 400 boxes for the doctors, nurses, and staff of all of the hospitals, as well as for other first responders.
Lisa Stutz, the nurse manager at Bon Secours Hospital, had overseen the emergency the department's nursing staff when the high schoolers came in in trauma on Sept. 21.
"That day was probably one of the worst days in my nursing career," she said, recalling how far everybody had come.
"The fact that we're here today," she continued, "and all the teachers taking time out to thank us is just, it's not necessary, but it's amazing."
The boxes of thank you messages delivered on Monday were all made by elementary school students in the Farmingdale District.
Superintendent Defendini said that he'd be returning to the northern suburban area from Long Island on Dec. 20 to deliver boxes of cards and other items from elementary schoolers to police, EMTs, firefighters and other first responders.
High school students, he said, will hopefully get to thank medical responders in person. He invited medical staff to visit Farmingdale High School in the new year.
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