A Grade 4 class at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Elementary School in Woodbridge recently showed a great deal of empathy and compassion when working on a unit in their Language Studies themed around “courage.”
As part of their studies, the students read true stories of courage from leukemia survivors, and were supposed to write a letter to the character in their book. Instead the students wrote letters to leukemia survivor, Eva Musso, who is a relative of a teacher at their school.
Musso visited the class to respond to their letters in person. She discussed how she found out she had leukemia, how she faced setbacks on the road to recovery, the collaboration and innovation of doctors and researchers, and the compassion and generosity of a stranger in Germany who donated their bone marrow to her, saving her life.
The students were inspired by this “real-life” example of courage, and demonstrated many Catholic virtues and character traits, including compassion during Musso’s visit.