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STUDENTS LEARN FROM VETERANS -- Iowa veterans

spend time in classrooms to help students better

understand the role of the military.

There should be a program like this in every school in the country.

Story here... http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid
=18971977&BRD=1907&PAG=461&dept_id=133418&rfi=6

Story below:

   Learn More about how to get a VA Loan today -- Click Here

-------------------------

STUDENTS LEARN FROM VETERANS

Second graders hold pillow case drive for wounded soldiers.

The gymnasium at Parker Elementary School was packed with Belmond-Klemme students and teachers, many of them wearing red in support of U.S. troops, last Friday afternoon.

The guest speakers were current and former members of the military. Captain Ryan Sextro, son of assistant superintendent David Sextro, served with the Iowa National Guard in Iraq for one year, and talked to the students about the children in Iraq.

He said the school children there spend their recess time playing soccer or kicking empty tin cans when there is no ball. American soldiers filled backpacks with school supplies to give to the kids. "A backpack full of stuff for school is the biggest gift any kid over there can get," Sextro said. He added that soldiers often shared the crackers and candy from their meal rations with Iraqi children, as well.

Discipline could be harsh for any student who misbehaved. Sextro said teachers would hit students on the legs with a stick for punishment.

He told the children to appreciate the life that they have in America. "There are a lot of things that we have in this country that other kids in the world don't have," Sextro said.

For the past several weeks, every grade in the B-K school district has been collecting items to send to troops overseas. That project was coordinated by Chris Mallen and the fourth grade. A student from each elementary class and members of the high school student council carried boxes of donated items and lined up in front of the students, Belmond veterans and auxiliary members.

Sextro said any package from the U.S. was like "receiving a little piece of home" for soldiers who are serving overseas.

Sid Swenson, a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, congratulated the students on the donations. "I'm sure that every single thing will be greatly appreciated," he said.

Vietnam veteran Gary Ruka said he remembered how exciting it was to receive packages and letters from home. Ruka said that Belmond students wrote to him when he served in that war.

A student from each class was recognized for outstanding character. Those students, who were nominated by their classroom teacher, were:

Kindergarten: Emma Schroeder, Tyson Armour and Jesse Brown;
First grade: Katelyn Fekkers and Brooklyn Lybarger;
Second grade: Lizzie Nelson, Kyle Watne and Tatin Sorenson;
Third grade: Matt (Carl) Glockel, Elijah Griffioen and Ezra Sorenson;
Fourth grade: Iran Carlos and Taylor Meints;
Fifth grade: Jay Spitler and Olivia Kuhlers; and
Sixth grade: Dylan Sporra and Kacie Schumann.

The assembly was held to wrap up activities for National Character Counts Week. Throughout the week, students wore the colors associated with the six pillars of character: blue for trustworthiness, yellow for respect, green for responsibility, orange for fairness, purple for citizenship, and red for caring. This assembly focused on caring and citizenship. Sextro told the students, "No matter where you go in your lives, you will need to live by the pillars of character that you learned. It's not something you should forget."

The second graders in Marcia Burt's class have been making patriotic pillowcases and collecting items to send to injured soldiers in a military hospital in Germany. Burt decided to reach out to her online quilting community for their help.

Burt posted a plea on the internet asking for "any kind souls who would be willing to sew up a pillowcase or two . . . that would warm a soldier's heart." Burt herself had already participated in Christmas stocking and tornado block projects for fellow online quilters.

In response, over 200 pillowcases were mailed to Parker Elementary School by quilters in Iowa, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, California, Illinois, Georgia and Kentucky.

Burt estimated that two-thirds of the pillowcases were made with patriotic fabric such as miniature flags, fireworks over Washington, D.C. monuments, or the Pledge of Allegiance or in red, white and blue colors. The remaining pillowcases were sewn from "theme" fabrics like lodge prints, fishing and hunting motifs, camping, jungle or jungle animals, hot air balloons, baseball and football, pigs on Harley motorcycles ("hogs on hogs"), western and cowboy themes, butterflies, florals, stripes or polka dots.

One quilter in California made 56 pillowcases. When Burt sent a thank you e-mail, she replied, "I have my health, a little money in the bank, a warm bed to sleep in, a roof over my head, and a loving husband beside me. Many of them don't have some or any of these things. It is the very least I can do for them."

A Texas woman sent this message: "I mailed seven pillowcases today. My mom passed away and her funeral is tomorrow, so this is all that I had time to make. Thank you for letting us help out."

Another quilter was getting ready for her son's wedding, but took time to mail two specially-made pillowcases.

A Virginia quilter said, "I sent you 18 pillowcases this morning. They should get to you in about five days. I would have made more, but I ran out of fabric. Thank you for letting us in on this project. It was a lot of fun."

A Pennsylvania woman wrote this inscription on the slender white trim she had sewn between the case and the header of the pillowcase: "Know that you and your comrades are in our prayers. You were there for our USA."

A California quilter had been driven from her home by the wildfires, but shared a pillowcase pattern online for others to use.

There were six other quilters from the area around the Belmond-Klemme school district who also donated pillowcases.

Each of Burt's 16 second graders decorated a light blue pillowcase that she had bought. The cases were stamped with stars, and each student wrote "We salute you!" in the center of the pillowcase. They added their handprint and signed their first name. Burt said, "I wanted to match the number of pillowcases my students had decorated, so I sewed up 16 pillowcases myself to donate."

The pillowcases will be sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Burt said the hospital has 1,000 beds and an average of 780 of those beds are filled. Landstuhl is the largest hospital in Europe, and is operated by the U.S. Army and Department of Defense. Wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq are treated there.

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Larry Scott  --

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