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Students at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Pelham Manor threw a surprise going away party for their gym teacher, Fatima Vasquez, on the last day of school June 17. Ms. Vasquez isn’t just going on summer vacation. A chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, she is being deployed to Dubai.
“It was beautiful, it really was,” said Susan Cotronei, principal of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. “We sang ‘God Bless America’ and ‘For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow.’ It was part of our morning prayers; I think she was quite touched and moved by the send-off.”
Ms. Cotronei had ordered miniature American flags for the students to wave during the ceremony and the children gave their departing phys-ed teacher going away cards they had made wishing her well. There was even a cake. The principal said each student would also be given an American flag pin to wear in their heroine teacher’s honor when school resumes again in September. Of course, she added, the students would pray for Ms. Vasquez’s safe return every day during morning prayers.
“It was a surprise. I had no idea they were going to do that for me,” said Ms. Vasquez, whose deployment to Dubai begins in August and is expected to run until May 2016. She said the surprise ceremony moved her to tears.
“My students know me as very hard core. I’m the teacher that doesn’t cry,” she said. “But I’m still human and to know that so many people love me and care for me you can’t help but get emotional. I did cry a couple tears.”
Ms. Vasquez, 48 and a mother of three grown children, has served in the naval reserve for 23 years. She had previously been deployed to Kuwait during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She said during this deployment she expects to serve in a supervisory role in the air cargo mission and perhaps act in a liaison capacity with the Australian Navy.
“When you get to this level it’s all about taking care of your sailors,” she said.
