By Kathryn Reed

MEYERS — Any day now several boxes will arrive at a Marine base in Afghanistan with the return address of Meyers, California, USA.

“It was kind of amazing to me,” Annie Brejc said of collecting things to send the soldiers. It hit home with her how she sleeps in a warm bed every night, but the soldiers aren’t so fortunate.

Annie Brejc and Tatum Bunnett

She and her fourth-grade classmates at the Environmental Magnet School in Meyers filled box after box with items for soldiers so they would have something special to open at the holidays.

Tatum Bunnett said some of the items were every day things that she takes for granted – like a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Teachers Kim Ilvento and Jen Seely put the project together as they were preparing to teach a lesson about Veterans Day last month. It morphed into something bigger.

They chose a particular troop from a website because these men and women wanted ornaments for a tree they’d dubbed “things worth fighting for”.

The fourth-graders decorated wooden star ornaments with words that they wanted the soldiers to fight for – things like family, freedom and peace. A picture representing what America means to the students was part of the ornament as well.

Poems by the students were also sent to the soldiers.

“The outpouring from the kids was amazing,” Ilvento said of the donations.

Eight boxes were full of things like blankets, DVDs, cocoa, popcorn and current magazines. These were all things the soldiers had requested.