Gifts for soldiers

Secondary school students prepare packages

MOSES LAKE - Columbia Basin Secondary School students are sending Moses Lake soldiers small comforts of home.

Students and staff filled more than two dozen boxes with items Wednesday, collected during a school-wide drive. The students planned to fill an additional 25 boxes.

"We're sending them all to the Moses Lake unit," said high school English teacher Jessica Merritt.

Books, DVDs, toiletries and snacks are some of the goodies soldiers will receive.

Beanie Babies and small stuffed animals are also included in the packages.

"The soldiers pass them out to the little kids in Iraq who have been traumatized by war," said special education teacher Myra Creviston.

Merritt and Creviston came up with the idea for the project. Students were asked to contribute by bringing items to school.

Merritt said her brother is serving in Iraq and family members send him packages.

"There's a lot of guys that don't have family to help," she said.

Creviston's husband served in Operation Desert Storm.

Creviston said students brought items they found at home and did not purchase items for the drive.

Senior Aristoteles Santiago, 18, was one of the students who helped fill boxes with treats and necessities.

"It felt like a good thing to do," Santiago said.

Santiago is already enlisted in the National Guard. He said he wanted to serve in the military since he was younger. His mother served in the military for 20 years.

Kandice Olsen, 13, also helped with the drive.

"It means a lot because I'm getting to get stuff to take care of the troops that served and everything," Olsen said.

Olsen said her brother is being deployed to Iraq in a few months.

Merritt and Creviston expressed amazement at the response to the drive.

"We've done several different drives before, and we have never gotten this much stuff," Merritt said.

The teachers said several staff members served in the military, and many students have relatives in the military.

Principal Sherrie Patterson also expressed joy with the response to the drive.

"I think it was incredible," Patterson said. "I think the soldiers are really going to enjoy it."

She said the community also helped with the drive.

The school is still accepting donations to cover the cost of sending the packages, Creviston said.

"It cost $10.95 to mail a box, and we still need money for postage," she said.

Donations can be brought to Columbia Basin Secondary School, 6527 Patterson Blvd., in Moses Lake.

For more information, call 509-766-2667.