It began when Ohl, 41, dropped off her daughter Charlotte, 10, at Chatsworth Elementary School, where teacher Noella Lansen asked her to show fifth graders how to make their own pins. The project took on special urgency when pupils learned that classmate Timothy McErlean's father, John, 39, a Cantor Fitzgerald partner, had perished. "It was hard for kids to know what to say to Timmy," says Kim Rosenthal, 46, a student's mother. "But making these pins meant something."
Before long the kids were besieged by adults wanting to buy their creations. So was born the "Let Freedom Ring" fund-raising drive. Ohl recruited 140 families to assemble the creations from beads and safety pins in her 1907 cottage and sell them for $5 each at local stores and by mail order. "My house hasn't been cleaned in six weeks," says Ohl, who left her job as human-resources director at the Bronx theatrical-construction company of her husband, Ted, to oversee the effort. "We can't keep up with demand."
The project, which wrapped up last week, has aided eight bereaved Larchmont families—among them the McErleans. Ohl's effort "has been good for all four of my kids," says Timmy's mother, Beth, 39. "It's a reminder that there's so much more goodness than evil in the world."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
