Author Mary Perren, WKVI
The Christmas season will be a bit merrier for area military members, thanks to the generosity of the North Judson-San Pierre Junior/Senior High School community. They recently wrapped up a donation drive for St. Joe Valley Blue Star Mothers. They are a group of military mothers who support local veterans, active-duty military and National Guard members. Laura Undem of Hamlet accepted the donations on behalf of the group and says she’s impressed with the school’s efforts.
“The kids did a really great job in doing collection for the soldiers, and all these items will be going into care packages for the deployed soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen for their Christmas packages.”
Undem’s son, Stephen is in the Marine Corps., and her son, Joshua, is in the Air Force. She says donation drives like these are vitally important.
“We need to support our military, even though they’re not headline news anymore. They are still out there fighting on the lines, and they need to know the people at home have not forgotten them.”
N.J.-S.P. Junior/Senior High School Principal Jim Polite says the school promoted the drive for the past month as part of their daily announcements. Students responded well, and a few teachers even held friendly classroom competitions. Polite says he’s pleased with the number of donations that were brought in.
He adds the lessons learned from the successful collection effort transcend the classroom.
“It’s very important that they look at things they can do and have an impact beyond just the walls here at the school. Whenever they have an opportunity to give back to those that are helping to serve us, I think that’s extremely important to help instill that value into them.”
The St. Joe Valley Blue Star Mothers will package these and other donations after Veterans Day and ship them overseas. They collect items like nonperishable food, books and magazines, batteries for electronic devices and personal care items, as well as money to offset postage costs. Contact Undem at lrundem@yahoo.com for more information, or visit the St. Joe Valley Blue Star Mothers IN #6 Facebook page.
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