Marcy Students Send Letters Overseas for the Holidays

Students in Katie Ritchie’s third grade class at have skipped writing letters to Santa in favor of writing letters overseas.

About a month ago, Ritchie had her students write to her close family friend enlisted in the Army and currently going through basic training. However, the letters didn’t only reach her friend, but his whole platoon, causing a flood of hand-written letters back to each individual student.

“I can’t stress enough how amazing that is considering the schedule these guys are on,” Ritchie said. “Each letter they wrote was thoughtful and encouraged the kids to do their best in school, believe in themselves and learn how to be a team player.”

As a former elementary teacher in California where 85 percent of her students had parents in the military, Ritchie knows how much these letters mean to the soldiers and parents serving far from home.

“While teaching there, I talked with countless fathers, husbands, wives and mothers who all claim that the small tokens of appreciation our troops receive from ‘home’ make the time spent away more tolerable and really brightens their week or month, not just that day,” said Ritchie.

Now each student is wrapping up another letter addressed for the Middle East to brighten up the platoon for the holidays. In addition, Ritchie is letting each third grader take home his/her letter to keep the bi-continental bond going.