Fourth-grade students at Morris Hill Elementary School, Fort Riley, learn what it means to be caring citizens by adopting Company B, 701st Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. The students are sending ca...

FORT RILEY, Kan. - Fourth-grade students at Morris Hill Elementary School learned what it means to be caring citizens when they adopted Company B, 701st Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.

"We talked about being caring citizens and what were some things that interested them," said Gennifer Booth, fourth-grade teacher at Morris Hill. "One was sending items over to our troops and letting them know we are still supporting them and to thank and wish them a happy holiday."

The class chose this battalion because one of the student's parents is currently deployed.

"One of my students has a father in this particular battalion, so as a class we took a vote and decided it would be a great idea to adopt," Booth said.

The students collected many items and had a bake sale. They started collecting items the week after Thanksgiving.

Some items they collected were baby wipes, game boards, mini footballs, hand sanitizer and Kool-Aid.

A "Change in the Bucket" jar was created to add to the $75 raised through the bake sale. The funds were used to buy extra goodies for the troops and to pay for postage to mail the package, Booth said.

The students also got creative making ornaments and cards to include with the package.

This is Booth's first year teaching and she plans to send care packages to the troops until they return home.

"I am a first-year teacher, so this is the first time I have done this," she said. "And, to be honest, I do not know if other schools have adopted a troop. Our intent is not to just do a one-time Christmas thing, but to also keep sending them items until they come back home."

Booth believes the 17 students who took part in the project will learn to be caring and responsible citizens who have learned the value of what it is to complete a strong service-learning project.

"I feel that this project has really created a cohesive classroom environment," she said.

Students participating in the project were Tristan Barrett, Tyreek Buckins, Jack DuPlessis, Logan Dupont, Kaleb Farris, Kiara Greer, Jessica Hass, Ryan Hilton, Briona Jensen, Jordyn Meyer, Keniel Negron, Gabriel Pizarro, Sadee Songer, Brandon Thap, Isis Vasquez, Kristina Warner and Cassandra Mastenbergen.