Dyker Heights elementary school students send letters and care packages to at-risk military veterans
It was a different type of writing assignment for the elementary schoolers at P.S. 127 The McKinley Park School.
More Stories
It was a different type of writing assignment for the elementary schoolers at P.S. 127 The McKinley Park School, who got to hand-write letters to veterans of the U.S. Military.
The letters are part of nonprofit Chances for Charity's new program called Operation Kindness, which has students at P.S. 127, along with P.S./I.S. 045 Horace E. Greene in Bushwick and P.S. 146 in Howard Beach writing these letters specifically for vets that are "at-risk" - which includes being homeless or living in a veterans hospital or shelter.
Chances for Charity co-founder and president Tyler Vozza explains "the goal is to make them feel appreciated, right, maybe put a smile on their face even if it's for a minute, and you want to teach the kids the power of being kind, the importance of being kind."
Each of the letters is then attached to a care package filled with things donated by the schools' students and families. Vozza says they're mostly filled with essential items like socks or toiletries, which Chances for Charity has been told veterans in these situations often need.
"They helped our country, so then we get to help them," says second grader Markella Hatzakis.
