By Courtney Woolery & Whitney Cox

Local middle school students donated money and gifts for members of the Armed Services serving in Iraq. Members from Pen Pal's for Soldiers, Mr. Barry Thomas and Sergeant Luke Patton, visited Valley View Middle School on March 30, to accept and thank Builder's Club and Leadership for their generous donation of $545.95 to the Pen Pals Soldiers organization. The soldiers and Mr. Thomas also awarded Valley View with a plaque in recognition for the students' efforts.

Each soldier shook the hands of the Leadership and Builder's Club officers and each Leadership officer whispered "You're Welcome" as they passed by.

Valley View Middle School's Builder's Club and Leadership raised money for the soldiers by holding a 10-day, penny competition between all the grades. Whichever grade raised the most pennies would win the competition. A fun way to raise money, Valley View students devised a plan that if someone from one grade dropped other money denominations like nickels, dimes, quarters, or dollars in the other grade's bin, that grade would lose penny points. The 8 th grade students won the competition, but overall, Valley View was proud of the amount of money raised by the students.

The soldiers also wanted to thank Valley View for the Care Package program that they participated in recently. Builder's Club collected an estimated 8 boxes filled with goodies for the soldiers, so soldiers could have the comfort of home even when they weren't there.

Pen Pals for Soldiers is a program founded by Barry R. Thomas, currently the president of the program for American soldiers. Their motto is, "Until they all come home." They send out hundreds of thousands of "talking bears" for soldiers ever year. This "talking bear" is a teddy bear that talks, saying kind things to the soldiers. With every bear, there is a care package also, which together costs twenty dollars to send. So, the money Valley View raised sent out about twenty-seven of these bears for soldiers in Iraq.

The President, Barry, developed this program to say thank you to every soldier that never got to be thanked for fighting for his country. A friend of Barry's, Robert Hassley, said, "Even if you don't believe in the effort these soldiers are making, they are still fighting for their country and deserve to be thanked by fellow Americans." Hassley lived through the Vietnam War and knows, "some of these bears sent out will be a soldier's last thank you they hear, and they deserve to hear it." He had heard soldiers say they have never been thanked, and now they feel as if they have been thanked.

Currently, Valley View students are in a letter writing campaign for injured soldiers. Anyone interested in writing a letter to a soldier contact Nancy Wilkins at Valley View.

If you would like to donate money for Pen Pals for Soldiers yourself, the office is located at 2250 A Union Place, Simi Valley, 93065. Or, you can visit their website at www.penpalsforsoldiers.org.