Press of Atlantic City , The (NJ)
March 10, 2006

HUGS FROM HOME: ABSECON STUDENTS REMEMBER WOUNDED MILITARY PERSONNEL

Author: MEGGAN CLARK Staff Writer, (609) 272-7209

ABSECON — When Dawn Schurig read a Press of Atlantic City article about Hugs from Home, a Galloway-based organization that links servicemen with people at home who write to them, she couldn't help getting involved.

Schurig, who works in human resources at The Press, quickly requested a soldier to write to, but that wasn't enough.

“The more you do, the more you want to do,” she says.

She suggested to her son's fourth-grade teacher, Theresa Maher, that his class might want to write letters to servicemen, too.

“She's like, ‘What about the (whole) grade? What about the school?”

And that's what ended up happening — nearly every student in the H. Ashton Marsh Elementary School ended up participating. Their more than 400 cards and letters will go to servicemen recovering from wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

The project melded well with a schoolwide emphasis on character building that focuses on one positive character trait at a time. The current character trait is “courage,” but unlike kindness or generosity, it can be difficult to find concrete examples of courageous behavior in the classroom.

Maher said incorporating the letter-writing made it easier for students to think about what “courage” means.

“These are people who really exhibited courage,” Maher said.

Schurig's son Michael and his friend Nichole Vizthum wrote letters telling the servicemen about themselves and things they like to do. Younger students painted American flags and wrote short messages on the back of them.

“Courage stands for you,” one student printed in sprawling capital letters.

“I think it will make the soldiers feel better,” Nichole said.

Kristin Petrella, co-president of Hugs From Home, thinks so, too.

“They love things from children,” she said. “They say it's a little more special. It comes from the heart.”

Sending cards to wounded servicemen and women is one of several ongoing projects run by Hugs From Home and its two young co-presidents, Samantha Novotny, of Brick Township, Ocean County, and Petrella, of Absecon, Atlantic County.

The organization is currently collecting cot blankets for wounded soldiers and coupons for military families, in addition to hooking up letter-writers with servicemen.

“Service members e-mail us every day,” Petrella said. “We need more members who want to write, who are faithful writers.”