Gifts to Sacred Heart students: a cross cut from a World Trade Center beam and a patch from Port Authority police.

Even without the gift of a metal cross, students at Stuart Country Day School in Princeton, N.J., are unlikely to ever forget September 11, 2001. But the cross, cut by rescue workers from an I-beam of the World Trade Center's North Tower, is a visceral reminder of both the terror that gripped the nation and its citizens' generous, often heroic, response.

Observers note that the front of the cross is marked by heat and trauma in a pattern that suggests a map of the world.

Although there is only one cross, it recognizes the role of students at all 21 Sacred Heart schools in that response. By a weekly contribution of notes and cards that kept coming until late May, Sacred Heart students from all over the country, led by Stuart Country Day, took part in a school year-long campaign to boost rescue workers' spirits.

A teacher at Stuart Country Day, Cynthia Dayton, did her part too.

Here's the story of how it came about. Not long after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center last September, a family

Art teacher Cynthia Dayton, left, with Sister Fran de la Chapelle, headmistress.

The family donated candy bars by the cartons, and children at the school began writing notes to wrap around the candy. The notes were so well received, that Sister de la Chapelle decided to see if all 21 Sacred Heart schools would get involved. She notified the other headmistresses, and the notes, cards and drawings started flowing in.

After a while, the candy effort ceased, but the notes kept coming.

Then a personal delivery service arrived in the form of a teacher, Cynthia Dayton, a certified reflexologist who teaches art to middle and upper school students. In January, Ms. Dayton, along with a friend from Massachusetts, began volunteering her reflexology skills to rescue workers at Ground Zero, specifically to officers of the Port Authority Police Department whose command post had been at the World Trade Center.

Two of hundreds of notes and drawings sent by students at Sacred Heart schools across the Network to rescue workers at the World Trade Center.

Reflexology, she said, is an ancient form of acupressure that, when applied to the feet for an hour or so, is the equivalent of a full body massage.

"It's a holistic health mechanism," she said. "People find it to be a healthy way to de-stress."

Until the last week in May, Ms. Dayton and her friend made weekly trips to Ground Zero, bringing their skills and the students' notes. "Guys would come in on breaks to eat and relax, and we would do their feet. They were on 12-hour shifts, so they were very appreciative, especially in cold and wet weather."

They also loved the letters, she said.

Students at International School in Tokyo sent colorful origami cranes, symbols of peace and healing, to the three Sacred Heart schools most directly affected by events of Sept. 11, 2001: Stuart Country Day, Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City, and Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Conn.

"Every time I came in, the guys would spread them out on a table, then take a pile and read them. It was so important to them to know that support for them was still out there."

As the work neared its end in late May, the officers went out into the yard one day when Ms. Dayton was there. From the steel beams stored there, they chose one from the North Tower and, using some of their cutting equipment, cut out a cross for her to take back to Sister De La Chapelle and to the students and parents.

"It's a crudely cut cross, but it has an overwhelming effect when you hold it." Ms. Dayton said. "It was their way of saying thanks for all the candy bars and all the caring,"

"They also gave me a Port Authority patch and a copy of a poster, reduced to the size of a card, with the names of people from their command post who were lost" when the buildings collapsed – 37 officers in all, she said. Ms. Dayton showed the cross and other items to students at end-of-the-year ceremonies in the lower, middle and upper schools. She said the school would be sending photographs of the three pieces to all 21 Sacred Heart schools as a thank-you.

Sister de la Chapelle said the steel cross would be inlaid into a larger shape and used as a processional cross when the school completes a new gathering space. The gathering space and theater will be part of a new addition.

"When parents first suggested to me that we do something, of course I said yes," she said. As at other Sacred Heart schools in the New York area, "we have children here who lost aunts, uncles and other extended family members" in the attacks, she said.