KERNERSVILLE - Students at Southeast Middle School have filled more than 150 boxes of items to donate to soldiers who will spend Christmas in Iraq.
Kathy Albertelli and Leslie Ring, art teachers at the school, helped the school's art club on the project.
The boxes were scheduled to be collected Tuesday for delivery to Iraq.
"Our art club at Southeast Middle School decided (it) wanted to do this," Albertelli said. "They asked the homeroom teachers and had a contest to see who would fill the most boxes."
Albertelli said she is working with Hanes-Lineberry Funeral Service in Greensboro on the project. The funeral home will pick up the boxes and arrange to have them delivered to the soldiers.
"I thought that would be a great school project for our students," she said. "In all of our art classes, the kids have written letters telling them how much we appreciate what they are doing for us."
The students collected items such as toothpaste, razors, wipes and other kinds of personal-hygiene items.
The students were surprised that the soldiers wanted wipes, but Albertelli used that as a way to tell them something about the conditions soldiers have to endure.
"We talked about the men being in trenches and the conditions of being in the desert, and how they needed it to keep themselves clean," she said.
The project started modestly, with one box delivered to each homeroom to fill. But the students didn't stop there and kept filling boxes. Cindy Morris's eighth-grade class filled the most: 22 boxes.
"Several of the girls have their fathers over there right now," Albertelli said. "One student has brought in a couple of boxes that she is having sent over to her father."
Albertelli said that the funeral home plans to ship out the collected boxes Friday. About 4,000 boxes will be going out, she said.
The students are hopeful that the soldiers will respond to the notes they enclosed in the boxes, Albertelli said.
"There are some really cute notes that the kids have written and put in the boxes," she said.
• Wesley Young can be reached at 992-0067 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.
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