Photo Credits: Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center
The holidays were a very special time for the student body at North Bergen’s Polk Street Elementary School. That’s because each child in the K through 8 school went home prior to the holiday break with a gift provided by Hackensack Meridian Palisades Medical Center.
The North Bergen hospital arranged for Santa Claus to visit the school on December 23rd to deliver gifts to every one of the more than 250 kids in grades K through 8.
It was a heartwarming gesture, which also included Hospital President & CEO Lisa Iachetti presenting Principal Adamarys Galvin with a check for $1,000 for the school. Mayor Nicholas Sacco, Commissioners Hugo Cabrera and Allen Pascual, Superintendent of Schools Dr. George Solter, Township Administrator Janet Castro, and other officials were on hand to thank the hospital administrators for their generosity in “adopting” the school.
Polk Street School is a bilingual institution teaching largely an immigrant student body, with the majority of students going to great lengths to reach the United States and are living with guardians or relatives. For many of them, this is the only holiday gift they’ll receive this year.
During last Friday’s visit, students performed several musical numbers for the hospital staff and gifted them with a giant signed Thank You card and candy canes. Two students then read a note of appreciation in English and Spanish. The note read, in part:
“Polk Street School is a place where immigrant students from all Latin American countries come to learn together. Every day we read and write and speak English and Spanish. We do math in both languages and we play in both languages. It truly is a bilingual school. Although we come from different countries such as Guatemala, Cuba, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, we all have one thing in common: We love learning, and we love this country.”
