Giving the golden gift — socks

Students brought out the holiday spirit early this year and stuffed it in stockings to send to troops overseas.

John R. Peterson Elementary School’s Student Council, the YMCA and Cub Scout Pack 290 joined forces with the nonprofit Words of Comfort, Hope and Promise to send holiday care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The students put boxes around the school to collect items soldiers requested and then came together to stuff the items into donated stockings. Students filled red stockings with food, toothbrushes, wet wipes and the big ticket item: socks.

“I guess those are like gold over there,” said Candis Moffett, a fifth-grade teacher and co-advisor of student council.

Students also wrote letters to the soldiers and put them inside the stockings. The kids put together more than 200 stockings and had more socks, flavored water and personal care items than could fit inside.

“We thought it was a great way for [the students] to serve our troops and help someone else out,” Moffett said.

In Moffett’s class, the students learn about the American Revolution, and she equates the soldiers who fought for the country then with the soldiers fighting in the Middle East now.

“We talk about how, even now, we have troops overseas keeping us safe,” she said.

The stockings were sent with others collected through Words of Comfort, Hope and Promise on Monday. Altogether, the organization sent more than 1,000 care packages, said founder Cynthia Martinez.

Martinez started the organization after 9/11 and has been sending care packages, deployment gifts and returning packages for single soldiers and throwing Christmas parties for the families of soldiers ever since.

“After 9/11, I was devastated,” Martinez said. “I had such a compassion to support our troops and our families.”

The school got involved with the organization for the YMCA’s monthly service project. Peterson YMCA’s child care director, Tomia Hicks, said the students do a different project every month and invited the school and Cub Scouts to help out.

Hicks said the projects make the kids more aware by exposing them to different things.

After all the students left and the parents were packing up, Cub Scout Enrique Gonzalez, 9, stayed behind to help pack up the stockings. Enrique said he had liked picking out what to put in each bag and had tried hard to make sure no soldier got gypped.

“It just sounded like fun to help and donate stuff,” he said. “I’m glad to be here.”