Latham Ridge Elementary School first graders took time out of their math lesson to honor combat veterans in the simplest way possible—with handmade thank you cards.
The students in Jennie Bauer’s class had a chance to hand them out as three combat veterans from the New York National Guard visited the classroom on Thursday, Dec. 11, along with Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, who is a National Guard veteran.
Bauer had each student of her first-grade class make a thank you card, an idea she got from Scholastic News. The students then wanted to distribute them to veterans, so Bauer sent the cards into the Veterans Service Bureau in Albany County.
“Every year I do something, a card, for veterans to show our appreciation for all their hard work. We talk about the armed forces and give (the students) background and show pictures. They each made a card. And I just mailed them to the Veteran Services in Albany County,” Bauer said.
The cards caught the eye of Veterans Service Director Charles Burke, who reached out to Bauer to set up a time where the veterans could come, meet the students and collect the cards. They will all go to veterans who are either returning from or currently in Afghanistan.
“I just thought this was great, the first graders taking the initiative to say thank you,” Burke said.
Master Sergeant Corine Lombardo, Major Al Phillips and Staff Sergeant Patricia Austin accepted the cards from students with the promise to give them to National Guard veterans currently serving overseas.
“It brings a bit of home back to them,” said Lombardo.
Among students jumping from excitement that the veterans had finally arrived, Bauer said she never expected such an event to happen.
“One of the things we do as soldiers and as service members is we serve the people,” Austin said. “This is what we’re here for. And you can’t forget the little people. You can’t forget the children.”
The veterans sat with the students, answering any questions and accepting the card from every student, taking the time to read each one aloud.
“We are always very appreciative when schools take on something like this and show their appreciation through the children that they teach,” said Austin. “We’re appreciative of the teachers themselves, because we too have children who attend schools here. It’s heart warming to get this type of attention.”