NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Each year on September 11, the Barnard Early Childhood Center community comes together to appreciate Amy’s Greenhouse, where the school has drawn from tragedy to create a place of life and learning.
Superintendent Dr. Brian Osborne, speaking to the gathering of Barnard staff, friends and family and New Rochelle police officers and firefighters, recalled the difficulty in making sense of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
“Here, so many years later, this greenhouse is, I think, among the most remarkable ways that I know to make sense of it,” Dr. Osborne said. “Here at Barnard School, we educate the youngest kids in New Rochelle. Through the greenhouse, we are teaching them to take care of seeds and to grow them into new life. There is a sense of wonder in that that inspires. That it came out of such tragedy shows tremendous resilience.”
The greenhouse was built in 2005 with donations made in the name of Amy O’Doherty, who perished in the Twin Towers. Her mother, Geraldine Davie, was a teacher at Barnard at the time. A wooden gazebo and a patio of tan paving stones was added later. The stones are engraved with names of those memorialized by donors.
The school uses the greenhouse throughout spring, summer and fall. In October, it becomes a pumpkin patch. In May, it hosts a Mother’s Day plant sale.
“All grades learn the life cycle of plants in the greenhouse,” said Principal Nicolas Cracco. “We are increasing its use as we expand our project-based curriculum.”
At the ceremony, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and Brother Kevin Devlin of Iona College spoke. Barnard students handed out American flags. Elli Roberge, a former Barnard student, read the poem “Advice from a Sunflower,” which begins “Be outstanding in your field, hold your head high.”
Davie also spoke at the ceremony, recalling that the donations made in her daughter’s memory were originally meant to support the library. But they poured in so endlessly that they amounted to enough to create something entirely new.
“There’s a spirit here that’s like no other place in the world to me,” Davie said after the event. “Amy’s voice speaks to me here.”
