February is the month of candy hearts and flowers, Moon Pies and Mardi Gras beads.  It's also the month for football championships, groundhog predictions and a day off to celebrate our Presidents.   But February is also a month of remembering.  We've officially celebrated Black History Month during February since the year of the bicentennial, 1976.  I vividly remember seeing a poster hanging in the cafeteria of Brentwood Elementary School and recognizing a few of the faces staring back at me.  I had seen them on TV, mostly playing sports or a role in a movie.  But, I definitely remember looking at the faces of those I didn't know and wondering why they were so important that they made it to a poster.  As a young girl of 10, my assumption was that if you were famous, you were either a sports figure, a singer or an actor.  It never occurred to me that recognition could be given to those who had been poets, or scientists or catalysts for change in our country.  I remember when I began to learn about those unfamiliar faces; their names, their stories, their struggles, their victories.  I think it was then that I began to understand the divide between cultures, between what other families talked about at dinner and who we looked up to as heroes.  It was then that I also learned about the different roles we all played in the history of our nation.  Even as a young girl, I understood.  The divide I was learning about has, at times, seemed unbridgeable.  Those faces on that poster refused to accept that divide.

This month we also celebrate our PTA Founders, Phoebe, Alice and Selena.  Each of them played a significant role in bringing us to where we are today.  Over 120 years ago, when our Founders decided to inform and educate others about the dangers and crises that were impacting their children, they urged them to take a stand and ensure that protections were put into place to prevent any more children from dying.  It appears that their work is not done.  It is now our turn to take up that calling.  Every day, whether they recognize us or not, we are seen by a child who needs our help.  Every day we have an opportunity to be their hero.  We have a chance to bring hope to a situation where there may be none.  We have our shot to bridge the divide between hurting and healing.  Our names or faces may not ever grace a poster, but those who came before us didn't worry about acknowledgement or notoriety.  They just wanted to take a stand for what is right.

February is our time to remember the journey, to educate ourselves to the stories in our community and to take that stand so that ALL children will have a safe, healthy and prosperous life.  I hope we continue to remember, long after the candy and the beads have disappeared.

Cindy Gerhardt

President