St. Francis students provide encouragement to soldiers
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Students at St. Francis Catholic School just finished making about 450 cards for soldiers in the Iraq/Kuwait area. While art and assisted learning teacher Betty Kadner spearheaded the project, students from their day care program to sixth grade became engaged in card making.
"I was really happy with how excited the kids were about doing this," Kadner said.
Mackenzie Ricken, a first grader at St. Francis, made 32 cards for soldiers, most of them emblazoned with a rainbow.
"All the kids have been really supportive as well as the families that have helped them," Kadner said.
Stephanie Ricken and Andy Walker, members of the St. Francis service committee, have also been instrumental in the project.
Kadner became inspired to start collecting cards and candy after a new round of deployment began.
"This all started when I heard they were sending troops over really quickly," she said. "And it turned out to be the fastest deployment in our history."
Her nephew-in-law Joe Kumor is a military chaplain and joined the many soldiers deployed. Kadner plans to send the letters and candy to him, which he will give to the 700 soldiers in his unit.
"I really wanted to do something to encourage them because they were sent so fast they hardly had time to do anything with their families," she said.
Kadner got the idea to include candy after reading "Indivisible" by Travis Thrasher, a book about an army chaplain. The chaplain uses candy to encourage soldiers to speak with him. She hopes this will help Kumor connect with the soldiers.
"We want to be encouraging, but we also want to give this chaplain a chance and a reason to see everybody," Kadner said.
She believes the letters and candy will be especially helpful for soldiers who do not receive letters from family.
"What [Kumor] tries to do is search out the young people that seem the loneliest or the ones that don't get any mail," Kadner said.
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Contact Anna Shearer at 641-753-6611 or ashearer@timesrepublican.com