Students in Madison Hughes’ classes in know what it is like to live in a country that isn’t their own.
The Beck Junior High students know the feeling of being a different person dropped in a new location and having to depend on others for help.
Each of her students have only been in the United States for a little over a year or two and are just learning to speak English. There are students from Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and elsewhere.
So when Hughes introduced them to the story of Gander and how the community helped on 9/11, she wasn’t surprised when her 32 students saw a bit of themselves in the account.
“Our classroom is like a miniature Gander,” explains 12-year-old Guillermo Pekle from Venzuela. “We all come from a different places in the world.”
Gander announced its presence to the world during the tumultuous time which followed a horrific global incident. As the world scrambled for answers about the terrorist attacks in the United States, the town almost doubled in size as it took in some 7,000 stranded passengers.
They were given a place to stay, means to contact home, food, clothing and, in some cases, a shoulder to cry on.
“(My students) can all associate with a piece of the story,” said Hughes. “It is just so multicultural and framed in the context of kindness instead of something negative.”
With that in mind, Hughes — a Grade 6 and Grade 7 teacher at the Katy, Texas school — had her students write letters to Gander thanking them for their work during the crisis.
Hughes drew her inspiration from a trip to New York City with colleagues two years earlier.
A self-proclaimed big Broadway fan, she attended a performance of Come From Away and was astonished by what she witnessed.
“I absolutely loved the performance,” she said. “I cried probably the entire time because the message is so beautiful.
“It is about kindness and how that can just change someone’s life.”
From there, Hughes dove headlong into the circumstances and the story. She found a map of Gander and filled it with pictures of planes and placed a heart where the central Newfoundland community was located on the map.
Hughes was an interim teacher at the time and never got the chance to share the story of Gander with the class she was working with. However, she pledged when she got a class of her own, she would attempt to tell the story of the town during 9/11.
That happened this school year and, at first, Hughes wanted to show her students — most of whom are working class — a piece of theatre.
“You know, here is another side of 9/11 and here is a bit of theatre,” said Hughes.
At the same time, she was looking for a meaningful writing project for her class when one of her colleagues suggested writing letters to Gander.
Hughes loved the idea and set about telling her students the story of Gander, 9/11 and what happened when the plane people came to town.
She put up a map decorated with planes and their origins, and showed her students clips from the documentary film "You Are Here: A Come From Away Story".
Her students loved the story.
“I really liked the story a lot,” said 12-year-old Laryssa De Moraes of Brazil. “I really like to help people I don’t know and I liked that they opened their doors to strangers.”
Once they started learning the story, Hughes let the students know they would be writing letters to the people of Gander. The teacher wrote a letter as well.
She asked them what stood out from the story and what would they tell the residents should they be given the chance.
The kindness shown by the people of Gander resonated with her students. The subject was clear.
They would each write a personalized thank you letter to the community.
“I had never done that before and it was really cool,” said 12-year-old Gabrielly Silva of Brazil. “I was thanking them for their kindness helping the plane people.
“They took on an overwhelming situation calmly.”
Once the students had written their letters, there was no plan for what to do with them. There certainly wasn’t an intent to send them to Gander for display.
Hughes scoured the Internet and sent messages to the Town of Gander and the local chamber of commerce.
Both were receptive to the idea.
After the school’s principal gave them a read, the students' letters were off to the post office and directed towards Gander.
“We didn’t anticipate they would go there,” said Hughes. “It is something (the students) will remember. There are a lot of different life lessons there.”
An Oklahoma native and graduate of Texas A & M, Hughes never wanted to go to Canada before she learned of Gander’s story.
Now a trip north has found its way onto her travel list. She is keen to take part in a Screech In.
“(The story) is really special to me,” said Hughes. “It really changed my life, I think, in the area of perspective.
“You can take a situation and be negative or you can respond with positivity and kindness.”
9/11 letters add to Gander’s legacy
There are three binders sitting on a table in the main foyer of Gander Town Hall.
Flipping through their pages, you’ll find correspondence from people in Florida, Las Vegas, Alabama and elsewhere in the United States and around the world.
The notes come in the form of emails, actual letters and cards and were written as a way to say thank you for what the town did during 9/11.
Soon those binders will feature some three dozen letters from a pair of junior high classes in Katy, Texas.
The correspondence has been continually happening since 9/11. Each month a couple of letters arrive.
That number will increase around the anniversary of the event and usually when a new Come From Away production hits the stage for the first time.
Recently, Gander received a letter of thanks from a person in Spain.
For the last two years, the town has received postcards from a high school in San Diego to which the mayor has responded both times.
“It is really encouraging that this story is being told in schools,” said Gander Mayor Percy Farwell. “How to treat people are being taught to school children.
“The children are becoming leaders.”
The letters represent more than just words of thanks.
They’re testaments to the assistance Gander offered during a difficult time and they speak to a legacy that will live on as long as people talk about 9/11.
Each letter that arrives extends the legacy of kindness that Gander has now. The town has become a global example of how to treat people and how far kindness can go.
“It is a very positive thing,” said Farwell. “It is very flattering.
“What a great legacy to have. We should feel very proud of it.”
