McIntire calls for letters to troops

Last year, McIntire Elementary Students banded together to write more than 2,000 letters for men and women serving overseas through Savannah's Soldiers, a group dedicated to sending positive letters of thanks from home. This year, the school wants to enlist the community to help shatter that goal. Letters of support for our troops can be brought or sent to McIntire by May 8.
Last year, McIntire Elementary Students banded together to write more than 2,000 letters for men and women serving overseas through Savannah's Soldiers, a group dedicated to sending positive letters of thanks from home. This year, the school wants to enlist the community to help shatter that goal. Letters of support for our troops can be brought or sent to McIntire by May 8.

Last November and December, students from McIntire Elementary and their families wrote 2,152 letters and cards to soldiers deployed overseas in one week, and sent them out via the project Savannah's Soliders.

The project, started by Savannah Maddison, a young girl from Florida, sends thousands of letters of encouragement to deployed soldiers each year. This year, the project's goal is to send 50,000 letters.

Due to the volume of letters collected by McInitire Elementary last year, Maddison will be visiting the school on May 10. Shauna Smith, the leader of last year's initiative and a kindergarten teacher at McIntire, hopes to surprise Maddison with another batch of letters upon her arrival.

"We're not setting a goal [of letters to send] this year, but we hope to beat the number we collected last time," Smith said. "That's why we're opening up to the community as well this time."

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.