A Little Piece of Home

Students at H.H. Poole stuff care packages to send to Soldiers in Afghanistan.

For the past several months, students at H.H. Poole Middle School in Stafford, VA have been raising money and collecting supplies and goodies to send to the troops downrange.  They wanted to do something to help support the military, and two of their teachers, Mrs. Reilly and Mrs. Gaylord, who work closely with the Student Council Association, put the project together.  Along with almost two dozen students, ranging from 6^th thru 8^th grades, they collected more than $600.00 in supplies and goodies from fellow students across the school. 

As I watched them stuff boxes on Friday, I listened to the students and teachers talk about why they performed this great service.  And regardless of whether they had family in the service, or knew someone in the service, unequivocally they said they wanted to show our service members they care about the troops.  And they thought that sending this “little bit of home” to the Soldiers was a good way to show their support. 

As part of the collection effort, one of the students even dressed up as a self-proclaimed “Soldier’s Angel;” complete with an old military dress uniform and wings on his back. He roamed the hallways with a sign that said “Support Our Troops” during breaks, collecting all that he could for the boxes.  I don’t think I would have had the nerve to wear an outfit like that to school when I was in the 8^th grade, but this student did. He was very passionate about what he was doing to contribute to the collection process and the success of the project.

As the boxes started to get packed, it was interesting to watch how they packed them – was the box I was packing for a male or female, they asked.  Can I put the pink socks in this box? What about ankle socks? Can Soldiers wear them? Is it ok if we put all the soap in one box, and all the books in another? Ultimately they decided to spread the wealth and put a little bit of everything in each box, so the items were mixed across all boxes.   We had obtained specific names of deployed Soldiers in Afghanistan, so they knew there was a mixture of male and female Soldiers receiving the boxes.  Ultimately, the students decided to make some “female” boxes so they could get the items that females would desire into a “female” box as opposed to putting it in a “male” box – very good idea indeed, and something I had not thought of.  What a great event to see and what a generous outpouring of support for the troops – from students in a school in the middle of Virginia that just wanted to help.

Now, off to the post office to get them all downrange! There will be a lot of customs forms to fill out, but the mission is almost complete and within a few weeks’ time the Soldiers should be receiving their goodies, all because the students wanted to show they care.  Thanks, H.H. Poole, for showing your support for our Soldiers.  We all appreciate everything you have done, and the Soldiers downrange who you will never meet will appreciate it even more. Job well done!

Students and teachers take a quick break before getting back to stuffing care packages for Soldiers overseas.

Colonel Kevin V. Arata / Army Public Affairs