{"id":12978,"date":"2019-12-05T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T14:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=12978"},"modified":"2019-12-05T10:00:23","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T14:00:23","slug":"making-christmas-filled-with-joy-for-those-serving-canada-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=12978","title":{"rendered":"Making Christmas filled with joy for those serving Canada around the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WMES Grade 2 students pen Christmas letters for Armed Forces members <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WAVERLEY: <\/strong>Grade\n 2 students at Waverley Memorial School want to ensure Canadian Armed \nForces personnel who are away from family during the holidays feel the \nChristmas spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 22 students in Dana Johnson\u2019s class took it \nupon themselves in late November to write letters that they would send \nto members serving around the world. The gesture came after the Armed \nForces issued a friendly request on their CAF in the United States \ntwitter account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201d<\/strong>Many of us will spend the \nholidays with our families. Many of us will not,\u201d the message said \nbefore sharing the Canadian Armed Forces mailing address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would mean a lot if you did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\n so Johnson thought it would be a good thing for her class to \nparticipate in. Each student did a draft version and then a final copy \nof their letters on Nov. 26, before they were to be sent off on Nov. 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRather\n than write letters to Santa, we felt it was really important this year \nto write letters to Armed Forces members,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cWe spent a lot\n of time speaking about our veterans who are home and overseas, both men\n and women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting to see how all the kids write how they feel to the veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three\n of the students, Mila Langford; Violet Manley; and Claire Connolly all \nvolunteered to speak about why they wrote the letter to the CAF members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claire,\n 7, said they wrote to give Christmas cheer to those in the wars who \ncan\u2019t be with their families. She told her hero all about her family, \nhow she has a sister, and that she does highland dancing, among other \nthings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re writing letters so they have some thing that will bring them joy,\u201d said Claire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mila wanted to make a veteran feel they were loved and missed at this time of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\n thought it would be nice for the people who don\u2019t get to see their \nfamily for Christmas and it would bring a bit of Christmas spirit to \ntheir soul,\u201d said Mila.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told the hero she wrote to all about \nherself, that she likes the colour orange, yellow, red, and blue, and \nhas a brother in Grade Primary and that she is good at dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope you have a very good Christmas,\u201d she ended her letter with. \u201cThank you for your courage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mila thinks the Forces member will enjoy her letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think they will feel happy getting it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violet wanted them to feel like it was Christmas with her letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to make them feel good,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to make them feel close to their family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violet told them how she plays basketball and ringette, thanking them for saving the world and peacekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love that you care so much for our world,\u201d she read from her letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WMES Grade 2 students pen Christmas letters for Armed Forces members WAVERLEY: Grade 2 students at Waverley Memorial School want to ensure Canadian Armed Forces personnel who are away from family during the holidays feel the Christmas spirit. The 22 students in Dana Johnson\u2019s class took it upon themselves in late November to write letters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[932,108,2,933,581,155],"class_list":["post-12978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-canadian-armed-forces","tag-christmas","tag-fall-river","tag-santa-letters","tag-waverley-memorial-school","tag-wmes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}