Mission accomplished in Operation Caring Friends BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Third-graders Jhoanna Estrada and Jessica Knierim move a box full of stockings ready to be sent to troops in Iraq as part of the Cove Road School’s Operation Caring Friends last Wednesday. HAZLET — Every holiday season since 2001, Joan Collins and her third-graders at Cove Road School have tried to let the American troops in the Middle East know that they care. “Our school has always been supportive of the troops and I’ve always tried to stress to my students that we ought to be thankful for having them on our side,” Collins said. Recently, Collins’ 21 students stuffed stockings to be sent to Iraq as part of Operation Caring Friends. The idea for the generosity came in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. “My daughter had a friend who was stationed in the Middle East and we would send her care packages every now and then,” Collins said. Collins would hear from her daughter’s friend, who told her that maybe other soldiers would like to receive things being that some of them did not have many friends or relatives. From there, Collins got involved with Operation Holiday Joy, a group that would distribute the packages to soldiers. “So many people in this building have chipped in year after year and it’s been great,” Collins said. “We have such a friendly school when it comes to projects like this.” Each of the 121 stockings contain goodies such as gum and candy and a handwritten letter from a student. “My husband was in Vietnam many years back and he still has letters that he received from people, and that really touched me, so I thought sending a letter was an important part of this,” Collins said. Collins said that rather than focus on the war itself, she’d rather harp on the impact that the soldiers are making halfway across the world. “I want to make the students understand what it means to be nice to the soldiers that are defending our freedom, that without them things would be different,” Collins said. And along the way, Collins and her students have hosted a few soldiers. “A few times, the soldiers that we have written to have come to our school to visit to say thank you, and that’s been a huge thrill for us at the school. The kids love it,” Collins said. One of Collins’ students said he knows that what he and his classmates are doing makes a difference. “I know that we’re helping a lot of people and it’s cool,” James Toth said. “I want to meet some of the soldiers when they come back.” Besides the feeling that they’re helping others, Collins also wants her students to understand that this project has more to do with the holiday season than what they may have realized. “I want them to see that not everything is always about getting fun games and toys for the holidays. It’s also about giving, especially to those that help us out so much,” Collins said. “That giving is a nice thing and that it can feel just as good to give as it is to get.”