For the past three years, School Safety Agent Hope Henry has been donating her time and money to benefit students at the Brian Piccolo Middle School 53Q in Far Rockaway, Queens. Henry recalls the day when she first thought of starting a class-leaders program.

“I was patrolling the halls and a young lady said to me, ‘I’m so bored.’ I told her, ‘When I was in school, I was excited to go. That was my freedom,’” recalls Henry, who will have eight years of service in March.

After speaking with administrators, Henry launched a Student Council and Student Class Representatives program, selecting students with potential and volunteering to attend Saturday meetings with them, where she brings in motivational speakers.

Additionally, Henry started the First Annual Debate team, and sponsored a needy eighth-grader’s participation in the prom and senior trip. She also sponsored a student’s attendance at the National Young Leaders Conference and President Barack Obama’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

In a letter outlining SSA Henry’s tirelessly imaginative ways to enhance student experiences, principal Claude Monereau notes that she “has mediated incidents with care and ease; always with a positive outcome... we love her!”

Henry has added more activities to keep the children involved, including peer tutoring, mediation training, and a spelling bee. Coworkers and parents are getting involved. Radio station 93.5 donated plaques to outstanding students. The children “have to have a mentor,” emphasizes Henry, who says she hopes “they go the right way, do the right thing.”