Local Students Seeking Military Pen Pals

I remember writing letters to my family while being station on the west coast, the best feeling was getting a reply from someone back home.

Writing letters is a lost art in todays world, one in five children has never received  a handwritten letter.

The survey of 1,200 seven- to fourteen-year-olds, commissioned for children's charity World Vision, found that more than a quarter had not written a letter in the last year and 43% had not been sent one..

Cindy Covey, an instructor at the Afton Central School, has been teaching her sixth grade students the art of letter writing as a class service project. The students correspond with service men and women stationed overseas.

Each year the 11-12 year old students “adopt” a service personnel pen pal. Then, they write three to four uplifting letters, back and forth, and eventually sending a care package.

The feedback from the troops is that while a care package is great, they cherish the personal letters of appreciation most of all.

This year the class is having trouble with getting a contact for addresses of overseas service personnel. They are ready to send out letters, but have no one to send them to. Pen pals must have an APO or FPO address to correspond with. All names are kept confidential and addresses are not shared (to protect pen pals).

Do you know a soldier who is currently stationed overseas? Please reach out to family, friends, American Legions, VFWs, or other organizations to see if they have a contact the students can write to. If you have a contact, please email it to Cindy Covey at: ccovey@aftoncsd.org