From here to Iraq with cheer

Suzie Harrison

It was about six months ago, after watching a news interview of

Marines in Iraq, that local Patti Rabun decided there was something

she could do to help them out.

“The newscaster asked the Marines if they could have anything,

what would they want, and they said letters or cards, baby wipes and

fudge,” Rabun said. “I thought, that’s so sweet I want to do

something about it.”

Rabun said that even though some of the soldiers had families they

said that they still didn’t get a lot of mail.

That’s when she enlisted the willing help of her first-grade

students at Top of the World Elementary School. She was worried about

the politics of it -- but one of the students asked if they could

write letters.

“They were so excited and said yes, yes, yes, they wanted to do

it,” Rabun said.

She wrote a note to her students’ parents and asked them if it was

OK for their children to participate.

“We took individual pictures [of the students], and they wrote

stories about what they were doing in class and we took pictures of

them at different places at the school,” Rabun said.

The students were as enthusiastic as Rabun.

“I thought it was a good thing to do,” Alexzandra Segall, 7, said.

“I think it’s good that the troops saved our lives.”

Austin Willhoft, 7, was another participant.

“I gave them baby wipes, and I said I wish they can win the war

against Iraq,” Austin said. “I learned about things that were

important about the war and the things that aren’t so mean and bad.”

Months went by, and they didn’t hear anything.

Six months later, Rabun was surprised after she was contacted.

Terry W. Johnson, mayor of Oceanside, and the 13th Marine Unit, 1st

Marine Division, from Camp Pendleton gave her a “Certificate of

Recognition.”

At the awards ceremony, some of the Marines who received things

from the class recounted the stories that they had read about in the

letters.

“It was fun and neat that they recognized and could remember the

kids,” Rabun said. “They thought the whole thing was so much fun.”