Soldiers Receive Gifts from Nolensville

Published February 4, 2010

Although they're thousands of miles apart, dozens of students at Nolensville Elementary School are making a real difference in the lives of soldiers serving overseas. In December, Shannon Robertson's fifth grade class began collecting donations for care packages to send to Afghanistan. Thanks to the generosity of the students and their parents, as well as a $400 donation from CVS, the children were able ship nearly 30 care packages to a group of soldiers serving in a remote camp near Kandahar.

According to Robertson, whose brother Jeff is stationed at the camp, the soldiers received the first two care packages on Christmas Eve. The rest arrived a few days later. She says the soldiers were thrilled to receive the items, which included everything from toothpaste and deodorant to trail mix and puzzles. In addition, many of the boxes also contained cards and class photos from the students at Nolensville, which the soldiers enjoyed reading.

"They were absolutely overwhelmed at all the boxes and couldn’t believe there were so many," said Robertson. "They were so excited to have a taste of home and to have some much needed supplies."

Below are a few photos from Afghanistan which show the soldiers as they are opening the care packages and discovering all of the wonderful gifts inside.