Teens send packages to troops
BY EILEEN SOLER
Special to The Miami Herald
Broward County students may be a long way from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are finding ways to offer comfort, support and appreciation to soldiers overseas. Whether it's sending toothbrushes, stitching pillowcases or simply writing a letter, kids of all ages want to show support for the troops.
For a look at what some schools are doing, also see stories on Pages 4 and 5.
Teens at Archbishop McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches are sending a little bit of home to some of their own at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
``They risk their lives for us so we can be free. They need supplies and they need our support,'' said senior Lorenzo Brea, 17, of Pembroke Pines.
Lorenzo is one of 20 teens from the school's Support Our Troops Club, who with help from the school's Civil Air Patrol Club stuffed and sent 36 boxes filled with holiday decorations, candy, food, hygiene products, books, music CDs and heartfelt letters for McCarthy grads who are now soldiers, marines, seamen and airmen overseas. The project is called Christmas in Combat.
Eight McCarthy graduates from the class of 2002 to the class of 2008 are in active duty in either the U.S. Army, Navy or Marines. Nineteen other graduates are in training at military academies or attending universities as members of the military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
Those students will begin active duty as officers upon graduation.
``We take care of our own families first. But we send them enough to share,'' said retired Lt. Col. Greg Cosgrove, who served more than two decades with the Army's Special Forces before becoming a teacher at McCarthy.
Like the McCarthy students, many kids and teachers around Broward County are launching projects to show support for the troops.
At Nativity Catholic School in Hollywood, about 30 pre-kindergartners helped bake chocolate chip cookies and decorate Christmas cards for troops overseas.
Teacher Laura Hirsch said she told the children that soldiers fight to keep Americans free and safe. The cookies and cards were added to holiday boxes sent overseas via class dad Alex Urruela.
``We want our children to experience the joy of Christmas through kindness, sharing and supporting our troops emotionally as well as with cookies,'' Hirsch said.
Joey Herman, a 17-year-old senior at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, has launched a nonprofit organization called the ``Thanks-4-Giving Foundation,'' which aims to help Americans express their gratitude for the service and sacrifice of members of the military.
``The entire foundation is based on letting these soldiers know we are so thankful for the courage and bravery they display,'' Joey said.
The project revolves around camouflage rubber bracelets that say ``Courage'' on one side and ``Thanks for Giving'' on the other. People buy the bracelets as a gift to anyone serving in the military.
The bracelets cost $5 each; you buy one to keep and a second one is sent to a soldier. The USO will distribute the bracelets overseas.
Civilians can add a handwritten ``note of gratitude'' with each bracelet they purchase. ``They may appreciate what's going on over there,'' Joey said, ``but they don't have a mechanism to express that, and this lets them do that.''
Cosgrove, who heads McCarthy's Support Our Troops Club, said he knows firsthand what troops feel like when they are so far from home -- and not just during the holidays.
``Put yourself in the place of a person 10,000 miles from home, cold, tired, dirty, lonely and someone is trying to kill you. We just want them to know that they are not forgotten,'' Cosgrove said.
The need truly hits home for Cosgrove. His son Matthew, 19, joined the Marine Corps earlier this month. His daughter Samantha, 21, is an ROTC student at Penn State. Neither is a McCarthy High graduate.
Support Our Troops club member Victoria Dennis, 17, said she thought of her boyfriend, Marine Shawn Budnick, every time she packed a box. Budnick, a 2006 graduate of Western High School in Davie, is at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, awaiting deployment to Afghanistan.
``The club is my way of being at his side,'' Victoria said.
In its first year in 2007, the club sent 115 letters to deployed troops, donated 500 books to the library on the USS Iwo Jima, provided 325 Beanie Babies stuffed toys for distribution to children in Baghdad and gave $300 to the Wounded Warriors Project for programs and services for severly injured service members.
In 2008, the group donated $600 to veteran causes, sent out 280 letters, gave 325 stuffed toys, provided 2,000 books to troops and base libraries in Iraq and shipped out 58 care packages.
So far this year, the group has donated 1,000 books to the USS Ashland and sent 100 letters and 36 boxes to troops. Holiday boxes were sent to various places, including Al Asad and Mosul in Iraq and Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
Club member Matthew de la Fe, 17, said, ``We just want to remind our troops of home -- that we think of them and appreciate them.''