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Students take on stocking project

Myers Elementary will send items to deployed service members

BELLWOOD — Myers Elementary School will again partner with the Military Families Ministry to send stockings to deployed service members this year.

This schoolwide service project will be launched at 2:45 p.m. Nov. 14 during a school assembly where Santa Claus, military service members and school principal Terri Harpster will address the students.

Students, families, faculty and staff will donate all of the items to fill the stockings.

Funds donated by local businesses will be used to ship the stockings, and all excess funds raised will be used to make and ship additional care packages for deployed service members. The Parent Teacher Organization and other parent volunteers will sort donated items and assist students with the packing of stockings.

Items that are needed include individually-wrapped Twizzlers, hard candy, hand and foot warmers, ChapStick, dental floss, toothbrushes, small-sized toothpaste, hot chocolate and oatmeal packets, snack and food bars, individually wrapped cookies, Ramen soup packets, small Slim Jims, individual drink mixes for water bottles, small packets of trail mix, nuts, pretzels, fruit or other snacks and decks of cards or small card games.

“This project has been a great way to engage elementary students in the act of serving the men and women who serve us every day,” Harpster said in a statement. “The students participate in authentic ways by personalizing and packing the stockings. The support of parents, businesses and community members has been tremendous. Without them, we could not do a project of this magnitude.”

Students will bring in hand-made cards for service members on Dec. 1, then pick items from each box and stuff their own stocking.

Stockings will be shipped to deployed military service members, prioritizing service members and their units who have connections to students at Myers Elementary School or the Bellwood-Antis community.

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