'Choice' students spreading holiday cheer to U.S. soldiers

Published 12:46 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Brenda Sexton

The Courier-Herald

Students in the White River School District's Choice program are spreading holiday cheer all the way to Iraq this season.

Choice is a specialized parent-partnership White River program for students in grades four through 12. Choice students spend two days a week in classrooms on a separate campus at Glacier Middle School and are required to spend two days a week participating in in-home instruction.

The school's student leadership group, with the help of Choice PTSA leader Rose Southworth, organized a personal-item and snack drive that rounded up more than 1,000 items to ship to troops in Iraq for the holidays.

"She (Southworth) asked them if they wanted to do it and they ran with it," leadership advisor Raeann Webb said.

The group was charged with collecting non-perishable snack foods, personal items like sunscreen and lip balm and fun items like playing cards, games and footballs.

The trick was to get the items collected in an approximately four-day period and mailed in time to arrive by Christmas.

The Choice programs' bundle of goodies is going to teacher Eva Foster's son who is stationed near Mosul and he will share them with soldiers in his area. The students also include photographs and letters.

"We thought it was cool to send it to someone we knew," Webb said.

"Someone very important," said Ian Royak. Royak, a student in the program, collected the majority of the school's items by going door-to-door in his Buckley neighborhood and then bringing his mission to the attention of his Puyallup church membership.

The leadership students also instigated a schoolwide involvement campaign, which Aubri Cassady said was the hardest part of the project.

"Just trying to get everybody involved and spread the word was the hardest," she said.

The group used posters and word of mouth to get the news out among the student body.

After everything was boxed and ready to send, the group hit its final obstacle - shipping costs. Southworth and the PTSA came to the rescue by footing the $150 bill to ship nine boxes. It was all the PTSA could manage. There are still more than 100 items remaining, but the group is looking at another drive in the spring and is trying to work connections through McChord Air Force Base to help get it to troops this time.

If that doesn't work they are considering a separate donation drive to raise the money to send the packages.

"None of us thought it would be that expensive to ship," Webb said.

The students said they are definitely planning a "next time."

Brenda Sexton can be reached at bsexton@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.