Nominate a Healthy Schools Hero 2012

 

The Cenotaph

For Immediate Release

Attn:  Science educators, STEM advocates, professionals in health and safety, lab safety, community security, IAQ, IPM, emergency and risk management, asthma educators, first responders, school administrators, advocates, parents…

Do you know someone whose sense of responsibility, inspirational leadership, and exemplary persistence and courage protects children from hazards and unhealthy school or community conditions?

March 18, 2012 will be the 75th anniversary of the 1937 Texas School Explosion, the worst school disaster in U.S. history -- a gas explosion in the small East Texas town of New London that killed 319 people, mostly students, just minutes before the end of the school day.  (What was the 1937 Texas School Explosion?)

By nominating a Hero you can help make March 18 an annual day that brings the Lessons of the 1937 Texas School Explosion to our nation's schools and celebrates the leadership that can save lives. See: "Set aside a special day each year as a memorial..."

Send your hero's name, contact information, and your hero's story by February 15, 2012 to healthykids@rcn.com

The Healthy Kids Healthy Schools Hero Award was created as an annual opportunity to tell the story of New London Texas' preventable tragedy, to promote inspirational examples of leadership and partnerships, and to start conversations to identify and eliminate chemical hazards and unhealthy conditions that put children at risk today.

Break the Silence.   

The Heroes Award is part of an ongoing campaign to bring "safety" from the margins to the core of school curriculum and community culture.  

The goal is to strengthen parent involvement and community partnerships to establish the 21st century standards and safeguards that can protect children from deadly explosions, fires, chemical spills and toxic exposures. 

This cenotaph, erected in 1939 is the memorial to victims of the explosion. The sculptural block of Texas granite depicts twelve life-size figures, representing children coming to school, bringing gifts and handing in homework to two teachers. Around the inside of the base are the individual names of those who died.  The Egyptians defined a cenotaph as a symbolic tomb, honoring the dead but not containing the body. It is a sepulchral monument erected to commemorate a person or persons buried elsewhere.