Hurricane Sandy Did Not Stop Halloween in NYC!

    I spent a lot of time today pondering over whether or not we should take the boys Trick or Treating this evening. After all, the entire East Coast and Tri-state area is still suffering from the horrible effects of Hurricane Sandy earlier this week. Although we are fine and did not sustain any damage to our home, many of our neighbors did and our neighborhood is full of felled trees and downed power lines.

    As an educator, I understand the importance of returning to a sense of normalcy for children after any natural disaster or tragedy. My sons, much like many of the children who were affected by this storm, have lived through and experienced the anxiety involved in waiting for the storm to hit, sitting through the storm, and assessing damages afterwards. They have been looking forward to celebrating Halloween all month.

    Since we purchased their costumes last month, my husband and I decided to just throw caution to the wind and take them out Trick or Treating. Much to our surprise, our neighborhood was just as busy with parents and children as it has always been for Halloween in previous years. It seemed that most parents had the same idea that we did which was that we weren’t going to let Hurricane Sandy take Halloween away from our children!

    It was sad to walk around the neighborhood and see all the damage that many of our neighbors sustained during the storm. However, it was wonderful to see how many put on a brave smile in the face of adversity and still managed to decorate their homes and to come out to give candy and treats out to all the kids. This is a true testament of the stuff that New Yorkers are made of! When the going gets tough, we get going and put our best foot forward.

    I hope that you will all keep the people in the New York Tri-state area and the rest of the East Coast in your prayers as we continue to try to rebuild our homes and our cities. For today, however, Hurricane Sandy did not take away Halloween and as you can see from the photos in this post, New York City and its citizens are just as resilient as you have heard…

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