This past Sunday may have been the best day that Esther Bono has had in a while. The Trace Elementary teacher’s South San Jose home was badly damaged in a brush fire in late August, and then that night, burglars pawed through the house’s remains to steal jewelry and anything else they could find while the home was red-tagged.
But during Sunday’s Viva CalleSJ — the popular event when roads are closed to cars and open to bikes, skaters and walkers — some of her first-grade students set up a lemonade stand in the Rose Garden neighborhood near the school to raise money for their beleaguered teacher.
Olivia Zazueta and her friends worked hard during the event, raising more than $3,000 by selling lemonade and cookies to people walking and riding by her parents’ house on Naglee Avenue.
“This is the nicest gesture anyone has done. I just couldn’t believe it,” said Bono, who had some lemonade and posed for photos with the generous students. “These kids are the real heroes.”
A GoFundMe campaign to help Bono’s family — including her husband and three children under 12 — also has raised $17,000.
Coincidentally, this isn’t Bono’s first fire experience. In 2010, her first year teaching at Trace, a fire destroyed the school, including her new classroom and all her supplies.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com