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Students get heroic designation

Nov-24-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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By DIANA CAMPBELL, News-Miner

Fourth-grader Alyssa Weiss knows without a doubt what her father does in Iraq as part of the 172nd Stryker Brigade.

"He hands out candy to kids in Iraq," said the 10-year-old girl at Arctic Light Elementary School on Fort Wainwright.

She and her family keep the sugar pipeline from home full so Sgt. Kenneth Weiss won't run out of sweets. As thanks, a little girl in Iraq presented the sergeant with a yellow rose, Alyssa reported.

Other children at Arctic Light, where "A is for airborne" and "B is for boots," have similar stories. The public elementary school has 430 children with one or both parents in the military. About 85 percent of those students said goodbye to mother, father or both as their parents deployed to Iraq, said principal Bill Martin-Muth.

On Wednesday, Arctic Light named its student body "Hometown Heroes" because they work hard, play hard and are good while their mom or dad is away, said Sally Myers, the school's community resource coordinator. The students, in kindergarten to sixth grade, got ice cream from Pike's Landing and Food Factory and yellow and tan rubber bracelets. Each also received a certificate naming them an "Outstanding American Military Family Member and a Student of Arctic Light Elementary." [...]


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