Saturday, November 9, 2024 | 3
HONORING VETERANS
Centura students thank veterans with letters, pictures
JOSH SALMON Grand Island Independent
CAIRO — For over a decade, kids at Cen- tura Public Schools students have been giv- ing back to the community, namely area veterans, by telling them thank you via letters and colored pictures. Barb Knopik, fifth-grade teacher at Cen- tura, said she has a major emotional connec- tion to the “Letters To Veterans” program. “Between my husband and I, we have six family members who have served, with my brother the most recent,” Knopik said. An emotional Knopik added, “We are extremely thankful for them (veterans).” Area veterans sign up with the school to receive the special mail. Knopik said they have even had some veterans return their appreciation for the kids. “Some will correspond by writing back to the kids,” said Knopik. “That is a great way for them to communicate.” Last year, one veteran showed up in per- son and met some of the kids who wrote him letters and colored him pictures. Kids in grades 3-5 hand-write thank you letters to either veterans in their own fami- lies, or ones on the school’s list. Kinder-
States. “We get to go out and do things, and we don’t have kings and queens telling us what to do,” Bryden said. He also said veterans can be younger in age or older, and they may have served a long time ago, or more recently. Paetyn Wilkins, a third-grader at Centura Elementary school, works on a thank you note to a local veteran on Wednesday, Oct. 30. They letters, along with colored pics by the first-graders, get mailed to area veterans.
garteners and first-graders color pictures. One such youngster is fifth-grader Bryden Osburn, who has an uncle to whom he wrote a thank note. “I have two uncles who have served in the military,” he said. Bryden said he knows veterans are good people who do good things. “They are a person who served in the military to help us out,” he said. Bryden said he loves the freedom that veterans preserve for us in the United JOSH SALMON PHOTOS , THE INDEPENDENT A Centura student colors a picture for a veteran at school on Wednesday, Oct. 30. The school has been sending letters to local veterans for over 10 years.
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Bennett Storms works on coloring a picture that will be mailed to a local veteran as part of the Thank a Veteran project at Centura Elementary School on Oct. 30.
VIEW: See the video of Centura students making letters and pictures for veterans.
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