ESOL Students help Haiti with donation to Red Cross

By Pia Lalli



On January 29, 2010, the students at the Norwood Adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages program (NAESOL) donated $365 to the American Red Cross for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. The program, which operates under the auspices of Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton, offers all levels of English classes to the local immigrant community free of charge, wanted to get involved with the relief effort. Many of the students both past and present are from Haiti and have family there.

The teachers in the program started collecting donations in late January. Several students are unemployed or hold part-time jobs. "I was expecting two- or three-dollar donations," said Pia Lalli, the counselor at NAESOL. "Students were giving us twenty dollar bills. They were still giving us money right up to the last collection day." John Abrams, Gift Planning Officer for the Red Cross, accepted the donation in person. He told the students, "The Red Cross has raised 30 million dollars and we will continue to help the people of Haiti today, tomorrow and a year from now." He thanked them for their generosity and said they should feel very proud.

“We strive to function as a community and, as such, we were all deeply upset by the devastation in Haiti,” said Blue Hills Regional’s Adult Basic Education Director Ellen Borgenicht. “I was impressed with the students’ (under the guidance of Program Counselor and Student Advisory Board Advisor Pia Lalli) flair for organizing, collecting and making the donation a reality in such a short period of time.”