Queens students lend helping hand to East Rockaway peers

Brian Croce/Herald

Brian Croce/Herald The Jewish Institute of Queens raised money, purchased needed items and personally delivered those items to Rhame Avenue Elementary School on Monday. Pictured are students, faculty members and administrators from both schools in Rhame’s storm-damaged library.

Brian Croce/Herald

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Like many homes in East Rockaway, Rhame Avenue Elementary School is slowly but surely getting put back together after Hurricane Sandy hit on Oct. 29. Rhame had between 10 and 12 inches of water flood its first floor during the storm, destroying carpets, books and countless other supplies.

Many people, both near and far, have reached out to the Rhame community since Sandy struck, but one group of do-gooders have gone above and beyond anything the school community could have imagined.

Jennifer Seideman, an East Rockaway resident and the principal of the Jewish Institute of Queens, made a special delivery to Rhame on Monday with the help of some students and faculty members. Seideman and approximately 25 students came to Rhame to personally present and distribute some items they purchased for the school. The items included carpets, beanbag chairs and other school supplies.

“It’s great because I have two families,” Seideman said, “my one here and my school family. So for my two families to come together it’s so meaningful because I see that my students and my parent body really want to do good for others. It’s heartwarming to see.”

Seideman, whose daughter Hannah is a second grader at Rhame, organized a fundraiser immediately following Sandy to help her local school. The fundraiser provided backpacks and lunchboxes, among other items, for Rhame students. A few weeks later, the Jewish Institute of Queens school community wanted to do more.

“The kids really wanted to help so when we reached out to our parent body they were very excited to contribute,” she added.

The Jewish Institute of Queens, which is in Elmhurst, was not flooded during Sandy and only missed two days of classes because of it. Even though some of Seideman’s students were impacted by the storm they still wanted to help other communities in need.

Eli Mullokandov and Roberta Maksumova are sixth graders at the Jewish Institute of Queens and were excited to deliver the new items to Rhame. “It felt very good and I loved it,” Mullokandov said. “It felt very good to help people and it was a lot of fun,” Maksumova added.