Reed Sends ‘Valentines For Troops’

By Eliza Hallabeck

 Two lines of students worked to prepare boxes of letters and collected goods for the Valentines For Troops program on Friday, January 28. The boxes were each decorated and stamped by students before being piled into a vehicle for shipment by Hawleyville Postmaster Mark Favale.

Sixth grade student Nathan Malota said he thought the project to send gathered goods and letters to the troops for Valentine’s Day was, “Cool.”

When writing his letter to a serviceman, Nathan said he wrote, “Thank you for serving our country.”

From hard candies to “anything that reminds them of home,” Valentines For Troops Project Chair Donna Monteleone Randle said the local effort to send troops serving oversees special thanks for Valentine’s Day was a full community effort this year.

While the effort has predominantly been directed toward students in the past, Ms Randle, a former US Army Captain, Signal Corps, said this year adult groups and after school groups are joining the effort.

Last year, 2,200 students wrote more than 3,300 letters and cards expressing their appreciation for the men and women serving the country. This year, participants included students from Newtown’s four elementary schools, St Rose of Lima School, Reed Intermediate School, and Merry Hill Day Care. Schools from several neighboring towns also expressed interest in participating in the project, including Roxbury’s school district and roughly 200 students in Danbury.

Several area houses of worship also signed on with the effort this year, including Trinity Episcopal, Christ the King Lutheran, Newtown United Methodist, Newtown Congregational, Faith at Newtown, and Congregation Adath Israel. Other groups involved with the project include the Connecticut National Guard Family Support Group in Hartford, Blue Star Mothers, and the local VFW.

Ms Randle said an event to thank everyone who participated in the effort this year is being planned.

Each year volunteers work to find and list addresses of deployed personnel to send letters and care packages to, and later work to help proofread and pack the letters and care packages for shipment overseas, to places like Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, and to ships at sea.

Sixth grader Megan Goyda said she would be excited to receive a letter back from the service person who will receive her letter. In her letter, Megan said she expressed her gratitude for the troops efforts to serve the country, even if away from family.

Megan said she was “happy, because he will know we are caring for them.”

Student involvement in the program, as in the past, could be kept confidential, and, if students wished to receive replies to their letters, the return address could be listed for their school.

“It’s wonderful,” said Ms Randle, as boxes received bright red hearts and other decorations. “It’s absolutely fantastic. Every year the kids participate, they enjoy it more and more.”

Ms Randle said she, too, will be sending out Valentines For Troops to all the men and women who have helped her to create the list of service men and women who will receive the care packages.

For more information on the Valentines For Troops project, log in to Facebook and search for the effort’s page, “Valentines For Troops, Newtown, CT.”