Here’s a nice Wellesley story to take us into Christmas and the New Year that stems from Sprague Elementary School students writing letters to soldiers as part of care packages that contained Halloween candy. The school was pleasantly surprised that one soldier had already expressed thanks, and now a second has done so via a somewhat more circuitous route.
It turns out that the letter from Sgt. Emmanuel Ortiz had made its way through the mail to Sprague High School in Washington State. But rather than that being the end of that, staff at the northwestern school did some research and a secretary reached out to our Sprague Elementary School to find out if the student’s name on the letter might be a pupil here. Sure enough that was the case, and the letter has made it to its intended destination.
If you’re having difficulty reading our copy of the letter, here’s a snippet: “You asked me ‘What do you like when you are in battle?’ Well let me tell you that realizing what I have to protect it’s bigger than me, and you are included in that list of things I have to protect my little friend…”
While we’ll forego naming the student and sharing the soldier’s location here for privacy’s sake, I hope the note and photo shown here will give you all you need to see. As Sprague Principal Susan Snyder wrote: “The best gifts are when people spend a little time to show they care!”
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