I'm Heather Pasquinelli's (Mrs. P to her students) oldest son, Jordan. My mom is always doing lots for other people. I mean, she is a teacher and mom of 10 kids and 4 grandkids, so her whole life is helping all of us and her students. She has organized many fundraisers, food drives, and donates her time for multiple causes that are important to her. Now, she needs our help.

If you had my mom as an English teacher, you know that she is very passionate about Holocaust education. She is a Teacher Fellow for the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. She has studied in Rwanda to learn about the genocide that occurred there, and she is heading next week to Texas to train with the Anne Frank Center. She even teaches a high school course that focuses on teaching about the Holocaust and world genocides through literature. She has been teaching for half of her career on the Wind River Reservation, so it is important to her to make these connections for her Native American students who have experienced much historical trauma. There is so much more she has done with Holocaust education, but I can't even begin to remember all of it! I do know that as her student in 9th grade English, I read Night with her, and it is still a novel she teaches to her students today, 20 years later! I have been fortunate enough to teach next door to my mom for five years now, and I know the impact she has on students.

My mom is one of 30 Holocaust educators selected for a teachers' trip to Jerusalem this summer to study at Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem is the Hebrew phrase for "a memorial and a name," derived from Isaiah 56:5, serving as Israel's official World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. Established in 1953, it represents a commitment to documenting, researching, and educating about the Holocaust, honoring the 6 million Jewish victims, and preserving their individual identities. For my mom, this trip is really the very pinnacle accomplishment of all of her Holocaust experiences. It is very much a pilgrimage for her.

The 10-day trip this July is entirely paid for by the organization Echoes and Reflections and its generous donors, EXCEPT for the airfare, which is quite substantial: $1200-1500 dollars. I know that my mom is really trying to decide what to do because she doesn't want to pass on that expense to the family and make things more difficult or burdensome for everyone else.

I want to help my mom, so I thought maybe YOU would all like to help out, too. If we all pitch in a little, I know it would help my mom a LOT, and she would feel less guilty about going on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Thank you! I know my mom and how much she would appreciate this (even though she would never ask for the help herself!)