LEWISTON – Nicole Footer wrote in her neatest handwriting over two wide-ruled pages. The 6-year-old added two postscripts. At the bottom, she drew a small self-portrait, complete with sun-yellow hair and a name tag.

This assignment was important.

This letter was going to Sgt. 1st Class Normand Roy in Iraq.

“He’s a great pen pal,” said Footer.

On Wednesday, Footer and 18 other McMahon Elementary School second-graders spent an hour writing letters and drawing pictures for Roy, a Lewiston man sent to Iraq with the Maine Army National Guard last December. The letters – many creatively spelled – thanked Roy for visiting their class during his vacation last month, asked him about Iraq’s weather and wished him a happy holiday.

“Dear SFC Roy, Thank you for coming and for bring the headdress in. And pogs in to. Is it cooler?” wrote 8-year-old Kody Voisine, adding an orange bunny and a brown mouse to the bottom of his page.

The pen pal project began last year when teacher Joyce Usher had Roy’s niece in her second-grade class. When that class graduated to third grade, Roy wrote to the new second-graders.

Made my day’

“I must tell you that receiving those cheerful letters from school children like you really made my day,” wrote Roy, a father of two teenagers.

Usher was eager to continue the project.

“They were wondering what they could do,” she said. “They feel proud now they’re doing their part to help soldiers overseas.”

In November, Roy, who helps to build roads and set up hospitals in Iraq, stopped by the school during a short leave from the Guard. The visit was supposed to last only 30 minutes, but the second- and third-graders were so enthralled that Roy stayed for nearly three hours.

He showed off a golden headdress worn by Iraqi girls and displayed “pogs,” cardboard coins that soldiers use to buy items at the military store. He talked about Iraqi children and told stories about the country’s searing heat.

In their letters Wednesday, many of the second-graders reminisced about the visit.

Eight-year-old Erin Hubbard’s letter went on for three pages.

“It’s fun to write to him,” she said. “It was fun to see him.”

The kids said they learned a lot from Roy: facts about Iraq, what it’s like to be a soldier, how life is different half a world away.

That was all very interesting, they said. But many thought their letters to Roy were the most important part of the project.

“He likes it,” said 7-year-old Nathan Cook. “All soldiers would.”

The letters will be packaged and sent to Iraq in a few days. It normally takes a couple of weeks for them to get there.

Hubbard just hopes Roy gets the mail by Dec. 25.

“So we can give him a Christmas present,” she said.