Sikeston, Mo., students help brighten soldiers' holidays with gift packages

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Seven years ago, eighth-grade history teacher Jamie Graeff's friend was deployed to Iraq. In conversations with him, she learned that not everyone in his unit received cards and gift packages.

So she decided to enlist the help of her students to try to brighten some of those soldiers' days.

Spencer Clark and Hunter Ward, eighth-grade students at the Seventh and Eighth Grade Center in Sikeston, created cards for soldiers earlier this week.

"We've been sending letters to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last seven years," Graeff said. "We also try to send Christmas or holiday packages each year."

In the past seven years, the project has grown through the support of students and parents. Soldiers' names and addresses are submitted by families and churches in the area. Students now make cards and donate items throughout the year, not just during the holidays.

"We send quite a few between New Year's and Easter," Graeff said. "With the lull in the holidays, that can also mean low morale [among soldiers.] It's important that they know even though it's not the holidays, we still care."

The project is fueled solely by donations of time, items for the packages and money to send them. Each spring, Graeff asks students to bring in change, which pays for the shipping. Most of the roughly 270 eighth-grade students participate in some way or another.

"It is strictly volunteer," she said. "They are not required in any way to participate."

Graeff is happy students give so freely.

"I don't have to beg and I don't have to plead -- I always have enough cards to send," she said. "If they get done with their homework early, they make a card for a soldier. Some even make cards at home."

Some students said knowing that what they do likely brightens soldiers' day is part of what inspires them to participate.

Student Hunter Duff has an uncle who is serving in Iraq.

"He said [the letters and packages] were really good to get," he said. "It makes him feel happy."

Fellow student Lesleigh Velaquez doesn't know anyone serving, but that hasn't stopped her from participating. She has made more than two dozen cards.

"I feel bad that they're over there and don't get to be with their families at Christmas time," she said. "It kind of makes them happy, I think, to know that people care."

The students benefit, too. "It makes me feel good inside, and happy that I can actually do something," Lesleigh said.

Graeff said the project is also a good teaching tool.

"We have written to soldiers that have done every job that you can imagine," she said. "And in class, we talk about what they do."

Some soldiers have even become pen pals with the students. A couple have come to visit the classes when they return from duty. One even presented a flag, which was flown over the multinational headquarters in Baghdad. It now hangs in the school's lobby.

"They students pay more attention to what's going on in the war on terror, because they are involved in writing to the soldiers," Graeff said.

Graeff said some of the lessons students are learning through the project will likely shape the people they are in the future.

"It's meant to teach the kids to be active in their community, both locally and globally," she said. "To me, I think we all have a responsibility to our U.S. military. And it's important to me to teach kids that, agree or disagree with what is going on politically, we should always support our military."