Seven-year-old Shalini Subbarao of Manchester carefully drew her words as
she wrote a letter Sunday at the Bal Vihar School, to "make families far
away feel better," she said.
"I'm sorry that the spaceship crashed," Shalini wrote, along with the other
110 students at the school in the Mahatma Gandhi Center, 717 Weidman Road
in the Manchester area, referring to the Feb. 1 space shuttle Columbia
disaster.
"Everyone is sad ... It is the worst thing that could happen. I will pray
for their families. I can't think about anything worse than this."
The 11-year-old school, which conducts classes from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
every other Sunday offers instruction on Indian cultural heritage to
children ages 5 to 12, said founder Sudhir Brahmbhatt, a Wildwood resident.
Bal Vihar means "children's school" in Indian. Its web address is
www.balvihar-stlouis.com.
Dr. Hamsa Subramanian, a parent and Chesterfield resident, got the idea for
the letters project immediately after the disaster, said her husband Subu,
the school's treasurer and secretary. The children have worked on them
during the last month.
"The children wrote what they felt," Subu said. "Many said NASA should
continue its research and exploration in space in spite of the accident."
Brahmbhatt said the project helps to make the children "part of the larger
community and to show them that all the astronauts, no matter their race or
religion, were human beings. Indian culture teaches is the whole world is
one family."
The letters placed in seven separate folders, one for each family were
mailed Monday to National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials to
be forwarded to the families of the seven astronauts.
"Even though they died, they did do a good thing," wrote Ishan Jain, 12, of
Ladue. He said he hoped "this will make the families feel better and to
tell them their relatives did a brave thing."
Ishan's brother, Ashwin, 11, also wrote that "we share your, love for
the brave and courageous astronauts, We mourn with you. They were heroes
for many people and also for me."
Tejasvi Subramanian, 7, of Chesterfield, wrote that she felt "sorry for
Kalpana (Chawla, one of the astronauts and a native of India), and I also
feel sorry for all the astronauts, too."
Trisha Bhat, 8, of Town and Country, said she wanted to write to the
families "because they must be feeling very sad, and letters might
encourage them not to be."
"I'm sad that one of your family members passed away," wrote Krishna Kumar,
9, of Creve Coeur. "At least they tried to make their goal. They tried,
they really tried ... It is tragic, but I think you can live with it even
though they passed away. I am really sorry."
Samir Thanedar, 10, of Town and Country, said it was important to write to
"take away some sadness, but you can't take it all away, because it will
always be there as a memory."
"We wanted to show other people care, and everybody in the United States is
mourning, too," he said.
Brahmbhatt said this is one of many projects the school has undertaken for
the community. Youngsters also recently prepared decorated pillowcases,
door hangings and other gift items for youngsters at St. Louis Children's
Hospital and for older adults at various retirement centers. And they have
conducted canned food and book drives, he said. |
