Edmonton school aims to fill hearts in Poland with shipment of morale mail

November 19, 2024 - Tim Bryant, Western Sentinel

Canadian Armed Forces members stationed in Poland on Operation UNIFIER will soon be getting special packages from home.

On Nov. 6, students from Westmount Junior High School in Edmonton handed over several “morale mail” boxes to Captain Ryan Bartlette, Public Affairs Officer with 3^rd Canadian Division Support Group, to be shipped to the troops training Ukrainian soldiers in Poland.

In return, Capt Barlette and Capt Jacques Pecora from 1 Combat Engineer Regiment gave the Westmount students a presentation about what it is like to be a soldier, and what the soldiers on Op UNIFIER are doing overseas.

Dana Nickel, a language arts teacher at Westmount school, and one of the teachers spearheading the military box project, explained the idea for the boxes came after the classes had read a book about a soldier who had lost his medal.

“We wanted to connect the students to the book [and] to the real world,” she said. “We’re big on giving back to the community at Westmount.”

She added the school has recently received an influx of refugee students from Ukraine, so making the boxes and having Capt Bartlette and Capt Pecora come pick them up and speak to the classes was an excellent opportunity for the students to learn first‑hand what Op UNIFIER is and how Canada is helping.

When Nickel and her colleagues proposed the idea, they got strong buy‑in from the students and fellow teachers, she said.

“[The] students were very excited to create cards and letters,” she said.

While the boxes also contained snacks and some toys, it was the written words they included that the students were especially keen to share.

“It really was all about the letters and they wanted to really show their appreciation,” Nickel said.

Sofia Rosales, a Grade 8 student, had a strong sense of pride when talking about contributing to the packages.

“I actually feel quite honoured about it,” she said. “I feel happy that I get the chance to do this. I have so much respect for the military, and I’m just happy that we could give something back to them after all they’ve given to us.”

Rosales explained the different classes did different things with their boxes. In her class, the students painted the boxes however they liked, and put things like bracelets or origami figures in them to add a personal touch. And what was Rosales’ personal touch?

“I added origami butterfly bookmarks because I think it’s the best thing I can do,” she said. “I just wanted to give them a bookmark because why not?”

Other students involved in filling the boxes were Sean Kingpiche, in Grade 9, and eighth‑grader David Chidi.

Kingpiche filled his box with pieces of digital art and stories about war, and said it was “a really fun idea to make” the boxes.

Meanwhile, Chidi said filling and sending the packages is a small thing he and his fellow students can do for people who are doing something big and important for Canadians.

“It’s the least we could do for the soldiers because there’s nothing else we really could do for them,” he said.

This is the first time Nickel and her classes have made boxes for Canadians serving overseas, she said. But it probably won’t be the last. As someone married to someone who served in the United States Air Force, and whose grandfather was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, she knows the impact of morale packages from home.

“The military’s near and dear,” she said.

Speaking after the students had all left for their other classes, Nickel said she’s already thinking about sending boxes to soldiers on different operations at a different time of year.

She added that she appreciated that Capt Bartlette and Capt Pecora were able to visit when they did, as the school was in the middle of marking Remembrance Week on Nov. 6.

“It was really nice to have some awesome military folks here to talk about their experience,” Nickel said. “It makes it real for the students instead of just reading a book.”