Care package honors father's service

Children at St. Gregory's School have been working to help out the military father of two of their classmates.

Nic King is currently stationed at a base in Mississippi and will soon be deployed to Afghanistan.

So students at St. Gregory's, where kindergartener Aydnn King and first-grader Andruw King go to school, wanted to do something to make Nic's stay overseas as comfortable as possible.

During Catholic Schools Week, students in kindergarten through fourth grade worked to collect money in order to purchase a boxful of care-package items that should come in useful when King is deployed.

The youngsters managed to come up with more than $150 in spare change, which was used to buy a large assortment of shaving cream, snacks, soap, pens and paper, books, Band-Aids, playing cards, chocolate, toothpaste and other articles.

Each of the students was asked to come up with at least $1, and since the K-4 classes contain a total of only 80 children, they obviously exceeded their goal.

On Monday, the kids presented the gift box to Aydnn and Andruw, who will soon journey to Mississippi with their mother, Lauren, before their dad ships out.

St. Greg's has traditionally put the spotlight on those serving in the military during Catholic Schools Week. Besides the care package, students at the school also wrote letters to both veterans and men and women on active duty.