Soothing a wound
Tohatchi students pitch in for vets

Jose Cordova-Munoz hands out gifts to children at Tohatchi Elementary School on Friday morning. Students at the school collected money and made Christmas cards for wounded soldiers. Cordova-Munoz will deliver the gifts next week. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — For the past week, students at Tohatchi Elementary School have been going into their piggy banks and foregoing treats at lunchtime to provide a little Christmas joy to men and women now recuperating in area veteran hospitals from injuries incurred in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Aletta Begay, a fifth-grader, spent the week on the school’s intercom urging her fellow students to participate in the fund drive.

“We wanted their change,” Begay said.

It must have worked, since the school was able to give a check on Friday to a representative of the American Legion for $118.36 to be used to help out wounded soldiers.
“Each student also gave a Christmas card,” she said. In most cases, the card consisted of a drawing the student made and a message to get well soon.

Most of the contributions were in pennies and nickels. “One girl came in and gave us two sacks of pennies,” Begay said.
Tirell Smith, the student body president, said he was proud of the effort of the students.

“It was good because we showed we care about the veterans,” he said.

But money wasn’t the only thing that was given — the students also gave a box filled with personal hygiene items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant that their parents had purchased to give to the wounded.

Jose Cordova-Munoz, the representative from the American Legion Post 8 in Gallup, said a number of schools in this area have set up programs this Christmas season to raise money for veterans. Also this week, he said, he received a donation raised by the students at JFK Mid-School in Gallup.

“This is amazing,” he said, adding that these contributions will bring a lot of joy to a lot of recuperating veterans in New Mexico and Texas hospitals.

He told the students that the personal hygiene items were important because neither the veteran hospitals nor the military supplies these kinds of items to the patients. Instead, they have to pay for them themselves.

Erin Jole was another fifth-grader who spent a lot of time this past week encouraging her fellow students to dig hard and give up popcorn and pickles for a day so they could contribute that money to the cause.

“My father is in the military,” she said, adding that he would be glad to see what the students have accomplished. “He’s back now, but he served in Iraq,” she added.

Besides the check of $118.36, Cordova-Munoz was also given a few extra dollars of change which school officials said was raised just before Friday’s assembly.

“All of the money will go to provide women in the hospital with personal hygiene items,” he said. “When they come to the hospital, all many of them have is a robe and the money will be used to buy undergarments and other things.”

Sandra Ki, a counselor at the school, said the entire student body got caught up in the effort.

She said students got the idea for the effort after hearing about programs mentioned in recent issues of the Gallup Independent talking about groups that had set up programs to provide care packages for veterans overseas.

“We enjoyed it,” Begay said. So much so that the fundraising efforts will continue after the Christmas holidays.

During the assembly, LeAnn Grace Yazzie, a fifth grader, was asked to stand up and repeat to the other students her feelings about being involved in the program.

“It felt good in your heart,” she said.