Saw Mill goes all out for ‘Giving Tuesday’

North Bellmore students have found a way to celebrate the philanthropic spirit of the holidays while connecting with children from the other side of the Atlantic.

Laura Neville’s fourth-grade class at Saw Mill Road Elementary School have teamed up with students in the United Kingdom and a charity in South Africa to raise awareness about Giving Tuesday, a global campaign, and Rosie’s Rainbow Fund, a British nonprofit group that aids seriously ill children and their families.

Giving Tuesday has been celebrated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving since 2012 in the United States, according the movement’s website. Thousands of Americans annually pledge to follow up the consumerism associated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday by giving to charities or the less fortunate.

The day of giving has since spread to Latin America, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Israel and the United Kingdom. Neville’s students completed their giving project in conjunction with children from God’s Golden Acre, a South African charity that cares for orphaned and vulnerable children whose lives have been devastated by HIV/AIDS, poverty and violence; youngsters who attend the Redroofs School for the Performing Arts in England; and seriously ill children in treatment at John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford.

Rosie’s Rainbow Fund sponsors therapy sessions and support groups for children, as well as purchases medical equipment. Carolyn Mayling founded the charity in memory of her 11-year-old daughter, Rosie, who was diagnosed with vasculitis, a rare blood-vessel disorder, in December 2002. She died on May 14, 2003.

Mayling said that her daughter was exceptionally musical, which is why her group supports music therapy sessions at Radcliffe, Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Bucks and the Royal Berks Hospital in Reading, as well as music sessions for special-needs children. It’s also why Mayling wrote “You Paint the Rainbow,” in memory of her daughter, which the North Bellmore children sang in the music video to promote her charity and Giving Tuesday.