Hemphill teacher, former student remember making sandwiches for workers during Shuttle Columbia recovery

HEMPHILL, Texas (KTRE) - After the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy in Sabine County, many volunteers did what they could to help feed and assist those searchers part of the recovery efforts. Even students at Hemphill ISD got involved.

“I remember hearing the crash, and it sounded like a really big thunder but almost a little bit like an earthquake,” Haley Cain said.

Cain was a fourth grader at Hemphill Elementary when Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over East Texas, tragically killing seven astronauts on board on Saturday, February 1, 2003.

Coming back to school that Monday, her fourth-grade teacher Sunny Whittington noticed her kids had only one thing on their minds.

“Of course, fourth graders had a million stories and a million questions,” Whittington said. “I thought what we can do to get these students involved and let them feel like they are part of this?”

With the thousands of searchers, workers and volunteers in Sabine County to help with the recovery efforts, Whittington came up with an idea.

“I thought ‘sandwiches,’” she said.

Whittington says she and her fellow teachers bought lunch meat, produce and dairy products. They set up stations where students put on the meat, cheese and more to give to workers and wrote notes for them.

“I remember making sandwiches and they had all the stuff out for us on the desk,” Cain said. “I remember writing ‘thank you’ notes and drawing pictures and using our Crayola markers on those paper bags.”

And they were clearly appreciated by those who received them.

“They were so excited,” Whittington said. “And after it was over, in the next few days, letters started coming.”

Letters from astronauts, searchers and volunteers thanking the fourth graders for their sandwiches. Some even asked if next time they could have a peanut butter sandwich.

“They learned that even at 10 years old, they could help even with what was going on in our county,” Whittington said.

“It really did kind of make all us small town kids feel like we were seen, we mattered and we could do something bigger than we thought we could,” Cain said.

Whittington says the entire fourth-grade class made nearly 500 sandwiches for those part of the shuttle’s recovery efforts.

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