Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Angel Martinez-Navedo | Members of the Puerto Rico National Guard, including Brig. Gen. Marta Carcana...... read more read more
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SAN GERMAN, Puerto Rico - Months into a deployment and thousands of miles away from home, away from family and friends, away from the things you love most, you’re starting to feel that you can’t go on. When suddenly you hear it… MAIL CALL! Dozens of “care packages” arrived containing candy, coffee, Christmas music and many other morale-boosting items. Among these items is a colorful piece of paper with a simple word written in crayon… Thanks.
Every year thousands of hand-made Christmas cards, prepared by elementary school children from across the Nation, reach the corners of the world where the U.S. military is present. Cards with messages like “Where there is a Soldier, there is hope,” or “Feliz Navidad,” and sometimes a simple, but effective as, “Thank you.”
“Well, it is time to say ‘thanks’ back to them,” said Brig. Gen. Marta Carcana, the Puerto Rico adjutant general, who paid a visit along with Command Sgt. Maj. Nelson Bigas, state command sergeant major, and members of the Puerto Rico National Guard to the Henry W. Longfellow Elementary School in San German, Dec. 8.
“This year we decided to spend some time with them (the students) and give back some of the joy they have given us through their cards,” said Carcana. “It was the least we could do.”
Students from this school have been preparing Christmas greeting cards for the last five years.
Because of the kind effort from the children, the purpose of the visit was for personnel from the Child and Youth Program, Recruiting and Retention, Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program and even “TC Doll”, the PRNG’s unofficial mascot, to surprise the students of Longfellow Elementary by thanking them with a musical “parranda”, but instead, the surprise was on the visitors.
Dozens of children lined up with banners of all shapes and sizes to give them the warmest of welcomes.
“It was very emotional, and I couldn't contain the tears,” said Carcana. “I had to address the children to thank them, and I did, but with a knot on my throat.”
In addition to the banners, the school prepared a musical arrangement that included children dressed as angels singing the national anthem choir style.
“It gives me real pleasure to see the work the teachers are doing with these students,” said Carcana. “These children are the future. I have no doubt that with kids like these, the Nation is going to be in good hands.”
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 12.10.2015 14:13 |
| Story ID: | 184139 |
| Location: | SAN GERMAN, PR |
| Hometown: | MAYAGUEZ, PR |
| Hometown: | SAN GERMAN, PR |
| Hometown: | SAN JUAN, PR |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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