Annie Flanzraich

Fri, Jun 17, 2005 (4:12 a.m.)

WEEKEND EDITION

June 18-19, 2005

Boxes of sunblock, Irish Spring soap and energy bars for a fuel-supply unit in Iraq are still piled up in the teachers' workroom at Ruby S. Thomas Elementary School.

Over the past three weeks faculty at the school collected the donations to send to the soldiers they have adopted. The problem is they can't afford to send the 300 to 400 pounds of items oversees.

Principal Art Ochoa said the U.S. Postal Service quoted him a price of $1.20 per pound, which would bring the total price of shipping to about $500.

"This kind of got bigger than we anticipated," Ochoa, who is also an ex-Marine, said. "It was going to be a simple box."

It all started when a former teacher at the elementary school, Laura Banuelos-Haro, asked Ochoa if some of the children at the school could write letters to the 110th Quartermaster Company in Iraq.

"My cousin was telling me that the morale is very low and a lot of the soldiers don't get any boxes or letters or anything from home," Banuelos-Haro said.

What began as a simple letter-writing campaign turned into a donation collection and patriotic assembly at the school.

The faculty donated hundreds of items for the troops -- everything from bug spray to beef jerky. The school also received donations from the Rio and the Orleans.

Assistant Principal Claudia Martinez organized the donation because she wanted the troops to know they were appreciated. She personally bought boxes of baby wipes and sunscreen to make sure each member of the 43-person company had some.

The children at the elementary school did not participate in the donation drive, but the fifth graders wrote letters to the troops and some students videotaped messages to send with the package.

Evan Scutero, a fourth and fifth grade teacher who is also an ex-Marine, said the care package will raise the company's morale.

"It's really going to make their day," he said.

Ochoa said that teachers called around the Las Vegas Valley to see if UPS, FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service or even Nellis Air Force Base could help them cover the shipping cost, but none of those entities offered free shipping.

Maureen Schumann, a public affairs officer at Nellis, said the school's predicament is not unusual.

"We've had a lot of calls," she said. "The problem is people collect all this stuff and the shipping costs are quite expensive."

Contact Ruby S. Thomas Elementary School at 799-5550.

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