By Richard Freedman
Lincoln Elementary School principal Melanie Buck couldn’t help but get emotional.
Not only was she surprised by her students’ response to a plea for helping Valley fire victims, but by her own memories of spending a summer as a teenage lifeguard in scorched Middletown.
“I know people who lost their homes,” Buck said. “All these pictures of burned houses. It’s devastating.”
So Buck put the call to her 220 students and their parents. And, though many of Lincoln’s kids are low-income, 101 brought in toys and books.
“It’s overwhelming,” Buck said Thursday afternoon. “I have been in tears and have had goose bumps.”
Buck said her students’ generosity was more than she could imagine.