Military brings Iraqi children gifts from America

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jon Hanson
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  More than 300 Iraqi children from a small village near here thanked the Airmen and Soldiers who delivered a large number school supplies and toys from American children.

About 30 Airmen and Soldiers traveled May 17 to the village to hand out school supplies and toys to the children. The items were collected and sent by school children from the communities of Niceville and Valparaiso in Florida.

Primarily five school children from three different schools organized and collected the supplies, said Diana Reese who supervised the Florida project. They also raised almost $2,500 for shipping and for buying extra supplies to make tote bags.

“The total estimate on all the supplies they sent was (more than) $10,000,” Mrs. Reese said. “They are still collecting and planning to send more.”

A lot of time went into this project, she said.

“Between the fund-raisers and organizing and packing these bags, I am sure every one of these kids has several hundred hours invested,” Mrs. Reese said. “The five main kids gave up entire weekends to go stand in front of (stores) to raise money to cover shipping and supplies they needed to put the packages together.”

Lt. Col. Craig King, 332nd AEW chief of safety, who is from Niceville, was especially grateful for their work since his children were able to participate.

“It’s pretty cool to be able to show my kids pictures of their donations being placed directly into the hands of their Iraqi counterparts,” Colonel King said. “Seeing that sort of thing makes the Iraqi situation, and our contribution to it, seem a little more real back home. Hopefully, it’s something neither the Iraqi kids nor my own will ever forget.”

The project benefited more than just the Iraqi children, officials said.

“It made us feel so incredibly awesome to bring such surprises to these kids,” said 15-year-old Erica, a ninth-grader at Niceville High School. “The kids over there are so much like us, yet they have so much less than we do, and that is not right or fair.”

"Handing out all the school supplies to all the children was the best part of the (visit)," said Senior Airman Irene Atkins of the 332nd ESFS. "Seeing the smiles on their faces -- who can ask for anything more.”

“I know that we have made a real contribution to winning the peace when we show the local Iraqis that Americans really care about them,” said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Glenn Rogers, 332nd AEW chaplain. “The happiest moment of this entire deployment (for me) was seeing these children, who are so poor, get so excited about a simple gift like a little stuffed animal.”

“People think this war was more about finding weapons of mass destruction, but I always thought it was about giving a better life to the people of Iraq and getting rid of a man who did mean and horrible things to his people,” said 12-year old Tim, a seventh-grader at Ruckel Middle School in Niceville. “During this experience, I noticed that the children of the school have so little. What we take for granted over here in the (United States), such as markers, crayons, pencils, paper -- just about everything -- they don’t have or have very little of it.”