For the children

A little project we'd been working on for two months has finally been hand-held through to completion. Two months ago while engaged in an email exchange with a radio station back home on an entirely different subject, the folks there asked if there was anything they could do to for us to express their support. It immediately brought to mind a school we had recently visited packed with 4-6 year olds with absolutely no toys to play with, and teachers with no supplies with which to occupy their charges. This is largely a function of dramatically uneven distribution of resources by Iraq's Ministry of Education. Some schools are well supplied, some are entirely neglected. This one was of the latter category. The school also happened to be located less than a block from one of our JSSs (Joint Security Station). To that end, I told the folks at the radio station that we, as soldiers, lacked for nothing. However, if they saw fit to coordinate a toy drive to support this school, well... I could think of nothing that would be appreciated more, both by the soldiers, and the Iraqi people. So began a journey that involved several businesses from back home, and hundreds of ordinary people who went out of their way to make a small gesture of support and affection. The cumulative effect of that effort was realized this week when we loaded up a convoy of humvees and delivered the toys to the school.

The radio station posted the photos from the drive on their website HERE.

Furthermore, HERE is a link to a recording of a call-in interview I did with the outstanding folks at the radio station in the days following.