Pelham students’ letters to troops now viewed every day in their mess hall
Local students’ letters reach Coast Guard members
By Corinne Holroyd
cholroyd@eagletribune.com
Madeline Dreusicke contacted Pelham schools and asked if students could make the cards for MooreMart, which sends packages to troops four times a year.
Dreusicke said the number of letters to troops has been down, due to a lack of military movements and people thinking they do not need to send letters anymore.
“I thought, ‘This is crazy. I’ve got three schools in Pelham,’” she said. “So, I went and knocked on doors. It doesn’t take a lot of time for these kids to write a card.”
One of those doors was that of Pelham Elementary principal Thomas Adamakos, who was happy to ask his teachers to spend class time writing cards.
“It’s a community activity and we’re pretty community-centered here,” Adamakos said. “A lot of our students have parents deployed overseas in military positions. It gives the kids some understanding of what their classmates are going through.”
Teachers were not required to have their classes write letters, but most of them did, and their enthusiasm was reflected in the children.
“They feel good knowing they’re doing something good,” Adamkos said. “They’re actually getting to the soldiers, the men and women overseas.”
The students wrote the letters in late May and sent them around Memorial Day.
Dreusicke collected all the cards and reviewed their content to make sure they were appropriate. She said they were all wonderful.
“It brings me to tears, what’s in these cards and letters,” she said. “It makes you proud to be an American because these kids understand what the price of freedom is. I was really proud of Pelham.”
The cards, which Dreusicke lost count of, were then packaged with supplies for the troops.
“The cards and letters are the most important things in those boxes,” she said. “It’s the first thing they see.”
Lt. Natalia Best sent a letter back to MooreMart on June 25, and Dreusicke passed it on with a picture of the crew holding the cards.
The crew placed the cards under the Plexiglas of their mess-deck tables so they can see the cards while they eat, Best wrote.
“I can tell from the heartfelt messages in your cards that each and every package was wrapped with love,” Best wrote. “It is an amazing feeling to know that while we are so very far from home, there are people back in the United States that support us and care about our well-being.”
Dreusicke and her husband, a former military man himself, spend most of their retired life helping veterans and active military personnel.
“Veterans help veterans,” she said. “We take care of each other.”
Part of her help, she said, includes MooreMart and the Pelham Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxillary.
MooreMart started when the Moore family worked to send unavailable supplies to a brother in Iraq. Soon the group expanded to send items to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In fact, we have been so successful in our mission that the soldiers have said that we ‘carry more supplies than Wal-Mart’, and dubbed us ‘MooreMart,’” according to the website.
MooreMart packs supplies in a three-day process every quarter and is getting ready for its Aug. 14-16 packing.
This will mark its 10th anniversary of sending packages to the troops.
Those who would like to donate or write cards can contact Dreusicke at madelinelavfw@aol.com to set up a time to meet or to ask questions.
“As long as there’s one soldier overseas, MooreMart will continue to send packages overseas,” she said.