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McKinley kids aid Iraqi students at Mosul

May-14-2004 » Filed Under: Homefront

[Link to Full Article]05/14/04
By JACK STOREY/The Evening News

SAULT STE. MARIE -- There may be no McKinley School next fall but first-graders there are making it their business to see that school kids in Mosul, Iraq have some of the school supplies they need.

All next week, the McKinley first-graders will be selling "Mr. Freezies" frozen fruit-flavored treats from 11:50 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. at the school. Earnings from the lunch-hour sale will be used to fill a school "care package" for one of several schools in the Mosul area repaired or rebuilt by US Army units in the region.

Michelle Butler, a parent helping organize the sale, said the McKinley kids decided themselves to assemble supplies difficult to find in Iraq for school kids there. Funds raised will be used to buy paper, crayons, pens, favorite childrens' books and maybe a few sweets for the Iraqi kids.

The care package is being coordinated by members of the Army's Third Stryker Brigade, a mobile combat unit that like several other Army, Marine Corps and Navy units in Iraq that has taken on school reconstruction as a volunteer project.

US forces in Iraq have so far rebuilt or repaired some 1,400 schools since hostilities ended in much of the country one year ago.

Mosul (or Al Mawsil) is located in the heavily Kurdish far north of Iraq, a mountainous region near the confluence of the Syria-Turkey border. A large city, Mosul is also sited on the Tigris River near that waterway's source in Syria.

In contrast to the south and west of the country, the far north of Iraq has been a largely peaceful area since US forces unseated the Saddam Hussein regime a year ago.

The Third Stryker Brigade is one of the combat units in north Iraq manning the new Stryker assault vehicles, lightly armored, wheeled vehicles developed for their speed over broken ground.

The general public is invited to assist in the fund raising effort by purchasing the warm weather treats from the McKinley kids around noontime all next week at the school.

First grade teacher Diane Possamai organized the special sale.


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