4/28/05

Recap of visit to Laurel Hill:

Hi Kris,
Today we had the soldiers at Laurel Hill School in Providence.  They came as you know to thank the kids for the letters, cards and decorations that they had created and sent to them. It was awesome.  5 soldiers came led by Col Gallogly.

As the children entered the gym the soldiers were waiting and the Air Force song was blaring away. The mayor of Providence arrived right on time. Channel 10 and the Journal Bulletin were filming and reporting. My principal, who is great, couldn't believe what was going on.  We had about 450 children ages 7 thru 12 sitting on a hard floor with hardly a peep for over an hour. The children had made signs, flags and banners.  The only sounds were ooohs and wows during the presentation. At one point Larry asked, who  wants to be a pilot? and of course 400 hands went up.

After the presentation they took questions from the children and then let every child who wanted to try on a pilot's helmet and a flack jacket.  Well, everyone wanted to and everyone did.  The soldiers were so patient and caring with the children it was amazing.
Some of the children decided they wanted the autographs of these heroes and stood in line as the soldiers signed their names to their scraps of paper. 

My principal, Dottie Smith, told me that a fifth grader came up to her at the end and said, "I can't believe we have real soldiers from Iraq here in our school, right here, right now."
We had to send them back to their classroom at 11:15 -2 hours after we began. On Monday I am asking the teachers to talk to the children about the soldiers who are still in Iraq and about writing more letters.  We should have a bunch for your next package.
Thanks for everything you have done - and thanks to those financing the effort!  The soldiers talked about the great effort and how receiving packages and letters makes them feel appreciated and missed.  Keep it up!

Pictures - thanks Julie for the great pics.