Gift of Life Recipient Meylin Martinez

Benjamin Franklin Middle School Community Gives Gift of Life

BFMS principal Anthony Orsini hosted a special breakfast on September 25, 2006, honoring all those who contributed to the Gift of Life project, a joint effort by BFMS/ AM Rotary of Ridgewood, which raised funds to “save one child’s life.”
Special guest was Meylin Martinez, a three-year-old girl from Honduras, who was the recipient of the Gift of Life, in the form of heart surgery to correct a congenital birth defect.

The project began last spring when BFMS students participated in a school-wide fundraising effort that generated the $7,000 needed to sponsor a child. Meylin and her mother Olga arrived on September 8, 2006. The surgery was performed at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson on September 18. Fully recovered, Meylin and her mother will return to Honduras on September 29. While in this country, mother and daughter enjoyed the hospitality of the BF community. They stayed at the home of Laura and Dana Christenson. Dana, a BF eight grader, spearheaded the BF effort in conjunction with BF’s React Club. Other BF parents, notably Diane Davis and Theresa Callaghan, cooked meals and provided transportation for the Hondurans to the hospital and doctor appointments. The BF Spanish Club and Spanish teacher Rea Hunter helped out as translators.

“I am immensely proud of our students and their families,” said Orsini. “This was a significant effort that would not have succeeded without everyone’s full cooperation. The success is obvious. Because our students cared, we saved a life.”

Gift of Life is a Rotary program funded through the Rotary Gift of Life Foundation. The hospital and medical staff donate their services. Peter Fenzel, a Ridgewood resident and former AM Rotary president, directs the React Club program in the region’s middle schools.

Left to right: standing, Anthony Orsini, BFMS principal; Regina Botsford, assistant superintendent of schools; Betty Weist, Rotary and Ridgewood Deputy Mayor; Peter Fenzel, Rotary; Laura Christensen; Diane Davis; and Raymond Hough, Gift of Life Foundation; sitting, Susan Hunter, Meylin Martinez and her mother Olga; Dana Christensen; and Amy Davis.