From Troy to Parkland With Love

Another day, another school shooting. These things seem to be happening all too regularly lately, leaving us all with a sense of helplessness. The latest tragedy in Parkland, FL had many people overwhelmed, wondering what—if anything--they can do, and how they can reach out to comfort those left behind.

“Troy High senior Emma Bossenberger came to me the day after the tragedy and asked if we could engage students in our school to write letters to show Troy High’s support for the victims and students in Parkland,” said English teacher Jennifer Opalewski. Within 24 hours, students from THS’s “Reach” club pulled the idea together and by the next morning, a plan was in place and the message had gone viral throughout the THS community. “The students put out the word they were collecting letters of love. Some teachers devoted classtime to it and some kids did it on their own and brought them in,” continued Opalewski.

Bossenberger, who is the president of “Reach”—a recently-formed Christian outreach group at Troy High--spent the next few days recruiting more writers and organizing the letters. “We knew that this was something that couldn’t be ignored and that we needed to take action,” said Bossenberger. “So instead of just talking about it, we thought it would be more meaningful to hand-write letters.” The end result was over 700 “Letters of Love” for Parkland.

“Emma poured her heart into this as she was deeply moved by the tragedy, and felt strongly about doing something, anything, to comfort students she didn’t even know hundreds of miles away,” reflected Opalewski. Senior Josiah Willis, also a member of “Reach,” was instrumental in enlisting writers and finding contributors. “The Spanish club even took the opportunity to write letters in Spanish for the bilingual students,” said Willis. And Woodside Bible Church in Troy offered to mail the letters, picking up the tab for the postage.

So, 700 letters…representing that many THS students who took the time to stop and care about their peers in Florida…ended up bundled into a beautiful box and were mailed from Troy to Parkland High School on Monday. “Our goal was to let students in Parkland know that Troy High School stands with them, and that we love and support them,” concluded Bossenberger. “It seemed like a very small and simple thing.” But a very big thing, indeed. We have to start somewhere.

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Photos: Credit Troy School District

Love Letters for Parkland 1 & 2: Love letters

Loveletters1 & 2: L to R: Emma Bossenberger and Josiah Willis