Community members Pam Henderson and Sue Farrington and 1st-grade teacher Rhonda Hartford help Hartford’s class and other first-graders create packages for the members of the 3rd battalion/2nd regimen Weapons Company serving in Iraq.

The kids got really into it, Farrington said. “They want to give. They want to share.”

Many of their families got involved in putting the care packages together, too, by bringing their kids to the store to pick out the items the children thought would be most useful, Hartford said.

Making the packages is good for everyone involved. Not only does getting mail from children make the soldiers happy, it also lets the kids practice letter writing and the school motto – to always be caring.

The first-graders wrote about their families, pets and other personal subjects. The point of the exercise isn’t about politics or whether or not Americans should be supporting the war, Henderson said. It’s just about reaching out.

1. Maggie Gill-Austern/Sun Journal

Jamin Pullen, 7, reads aloud a letter he wrote, before putting it in a box to be sent to members of the 3rd battalion/2nd regimen Weapons Company serving in Iraq.

2. Maggie Gill-Austern/Sun Journal

Daniel Paulton, 6, of Farmington, waits to put a letter he wrote in a box to be sent to members of the 3rd battalion/2nd regimen Weapons Company serving in Iraq.

3. Maggie Gill-Austern/Sun Journal

Tyler Thorne, left, William Salisbury, center, and Kyle Farrington help community member Pam Henderson put items in a care package to be sent to U.S. soldiers serving in the 3rd battalion/2nd regimen Weapons Company in Iraq.