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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2001

The Bush administration reached out to children this week, enlisting Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb to help comfort and console an elementary school still grieving from September 11's deadly terrorist attacks.

McCaleb was moved to tears as officials from the M.V. Leckie Elementary School in Washington, DC, on Thursday described the heartache of losing two members of their extended family to the tragedy. Beloved teacher Hilda E. Taylor and popular student Bernard Brown were traveling to California for a four-day educational field trip when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked, crashing into the Pentagon.

For colleagues, classmates and family of the pair, the journey since has been an emotional one. With less than 500 students, the school is tight-knit, making the loss all the more hard-hitting.

Hoping to lend some support, the Department of Interior brought a special shipment of gifts to the predominantly African-American school. All the way from Oklahoma came boxes of teddy bears, conveying messages of love, hope and sharing.

"Someone in Oklahoma loves you," read one, "Me!"

It was signed: "Your Guardian Angel Bear."

Donated by school children and their families, the gifts were inspired by another tragedy: the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City. Among the 168 people killed on April 19 were young children, 19 of them.

Soon after, teddy bears began appearing on the fence in front of the wreckage at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They represented the loss felt by the families of the children, but also symbolized a sense of renewal.

Yesterday, that spirit was born again by the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Through Project Hope Bear, the memorial is delivering 100,000 teddy bears to children in the Washington area, New York and New Jersey.

For McCaleb, participating was a reminder of his closeness to both tragedies. He was Oklahoma's Secretary of Transportation and less than a mile away from the building at the time of the 1995 bombing. Last month, he was temporarily stranded when the U.S. Capitol and federal buildings were evacuated after the Pentagon was hit.

"It is because of their experience that the people of Oklahoma can sympathize and empathize with your pain," he told the school.

Talking to young children about attacks is always difficult, said McCaleb, who is also a grandfather. "It's hard," he said later in an interview. "There is no explaining it."

"Rather than try to explain it, or vilify the perpetrators," he added, "it's better just to send your love."

On Wednesday, President Bush visited New York City for a second time since the World Trade Center collapsed. There, he also sent a message of hope to an elementary school shut down after the attacks that has since reopened.

Relevant Links:
Oklahoma City National Memorial - http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org

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