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MUMS Students Reach Out Across the Miles to Soldiers Serving During the Holidays

photo provided From left to right: MUMS 8th graders from Team Mosaic L J. Hounchell, A. Sheldrick, K. Smith, N. Bauchamp, K. Charbonneau, C. Balparda, Teacher Shannon Warden, N. McWilliams, D. Gero, S. Amory, S. Snide, and B. Lepri gathered to make cards, write letters and send holiday greetings and thanks to over 170 Vermont Green Mountain Boys stationed overseas in Afghanistan.

Tuesday January 3, 2012

By Cookie Steponaitis

   For the 8th graders of Team Mosaic at Middlebury Union Middle School, the holidays involved planning and executing a community service project that was full of meaning and found that it took on a life of its own. “Originally,” shared MUMS teacher Shannon Warden, “the students wanted to decide on a project that in their own words ‘directly served people’ and they decided to send handwritten cards to service men stationed overseas.”

    From that simple idea, the project snowballed until the students had created, written and sent over 170 cards and candy canes to Vermont Green Mountain Boys stationed in Afghanistan. Working during school, after school and in study halls, the teens reached out to others in the school and spent a great deal of time on each card, writing a thought, a message or a letter personally thanking the soldiers for their service.

    One eighth grader remarked, “Every soldier deserves to get a card so they know that we care about them, especially during the holidays.” While all cards were addressed to Dear American Soldiers, the messages inside were as personal and heartfelt as the teens writing them. “You allow us to sleep safe in our beds at night,” one wrote while another summed it up as, "this is an important project because it is in the true spirit and meaning of this holiday season, because the soldiers put themselves at risk every day, risking their lives to keep us free.”

   While the cards wing their way to Afghanistan for delivery, the group is already thinking about their next project. “And I of course couldn't be prouder of the sincerity and maturity my kids had to see this project through,” shared teacher Shannon Warden. “It touched many people in a positive way.”
      

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