What began as a big disappointment for Bridgeport’s Read School community two days before Thanksgiving transformed into an outpouring of support that’s still blessing families for the winter holidays.
It was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving when Read School found out a donor who had promised 100 Thanksgiving meals for families had suddenly pulled out.
“I’ve been teaching at this same school and in the same grade for 23 years—and it just killed me when I found out,” says Rebecca Hasiotis (at left in photo). “I’ve seen what a lot of these kids go through. Many families were counting on that Thanksgiving meal, and now they were going to go without.”
Teachers and staff at the school were all upset. Hasiotis talked to her colleagues, saying she wished there was something she could do.
Some of her friends suggested reaching out on Facebook to ask for donations just to see what would happen, and after principal Sarhanna Smith agreed to the idea, that’s what Hasiotis did.
“I posted on the Moms of Fairfield County page, which has thousands of members. I’m also a member of MOMbies—we dance to raise money for breast cancer research. Many of the other MOMbies copied and pasted the donation info on their own pages and it snowballed.”
Hasiotis says she had hoped to maybe raise $1,000 and was overcome when she saw the response her donation request received.
“We had people from all over donating—people from Bridgeport and people who we had no idea who they were. One woman dropped off $500 in gift cards and did not want to be named. It was really amazing. A woman who has donated to our coat drive before purchased 100 jackets for our kids, all brand new. My son’s football league had already planned a toy drive for us, and now they also have a coat drive.”
When all the donations were counted up, the total came to $24,000 in just 24 hours.
“I started crying,” Hasiotis says. “I kept taking screen shots of my Venmo to show my principal, and then I found out News 12 was coming.”
Given the short timeline, the school decided the easiest way to provide families with Thanksgiving meals was by handing out gift cards.
Because of the outpouring of generosity, the school was able to offer $100 gift cards to all families, not just the 100 originally scheduled to receive meals. Bridgeport didn’t have school on Wednesday, and so Read School sent out a message and invited parents to come to the school between 10am and noon to pick up a gift card.
“Many of the families were very thankful—even though there was a language barrier for some parents,” Hasiotis says. “One of my former students came running up and gave me a big hug and said, ‘Thank you for everything.’ The kids all signed a poster that said, ‘Thank you’ so I could share it with donors.”
The generosity of donors has also made brighter holidays possible for Read students. Donations left over after Thanksgiving have gone to provide more gift cards for families ahead of the winter holidays.
“This experience was overwhelming in the best way possible,” Hasiotis says.
Hasiotis is just one of the tens of thousands of teachers across Connecticut who go the extra mile for their students every day. Find out more about CEA’s Teachers Go the Extra Mile campaign in which Connecticut parents and grandparents share moving stories about the extraordinary dedication of teachers who, despite overwhelming obstacles, go to great lengths to meet the diverse needs of their students.
