Fairoaks/Manhattan Manor: Kids send postcards, their love to troops
Students at St. Patrick Catholic School ship out boxes of cards, snacks and toiletries as part of "Operation Postcard."
By ELISABETH DYER
Published December 19, 2003
Children at St. Patrick Catholic School are sending Christmas cheer to troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia through "Operation Postcard."
In time for the holiday mail deadline, they shipped out eight big boxes of cards, snacks and toiletries to show the troops that people back home care about them.
Last week, Father Gregg Caggianelli, a U.S. Air Force chaplain, visited the school on Manhattan Avenue to thank the students. Being away from home at Christmastime is tough, he told them. Getting mail helps.
"It really means the world to them," he said.
Patricia Brinsor's sixth-grade class started "Operation Postcard" 21/2 half years ago when a student's father was sent to Afghanistan. They continued to write in seventh and eighth grade and, in all, have sent about 200 postcards.
The students write notes, offer prayers and decorate the 3- by 5-inch index cards. They write from the heart, with no editing from teachers.
"I think the troops need a chuckle," Brinsor said.
Over time, the idea has caught on.
Today, kindergarteners through eighth-graders at St. Patrick regularly add to the boxes, as do students from Dickenson Elementary, Adams Middle and Chamberlain High schools. The adult Bible class at Wesley Memorial United+
Methodist Church in Tampa helps with postage; Brinsor pays the rest. Last year, a local Girl Scout troop gave cards and 28 boxes of cookies.
Besides postcards, St. Patrick students have shipped more than 15 boxes of books to troops in Afghanistan and seven boxes of civilian clothes to troops Bahrain. Another seven boxes of snacks, supplies and postcards await postage in Brinsor's living room.
The postcards offer students writing practice, but the real lesson, Brinsor says, comes out of caring for other people.
"People need to know we're thinking about them," fourth-grader Patrick O'Brien said. "They could be fighting as we speak."
Classmate Alexis Toledo said the experience is like having another friend.
"Whenever they take the card out of their pocket, they're going to think, "Somebody does love me."'
