Photo By Maj. Rickardo Bodden | The first grade class from St. John's Lutheran School in Oxnard, Calif., pose for a...... read more read more
VINOGRADNOYE, Kyrgyzstan - Vasilievika School in Vinogradnoye, Kyrgyzstan, has come to appreciate and depend on the generosity of Airmen at nearby Manas Air Base, who visit weekly to do improvement projects and deliver supplies and smiles to its 75 students. A recent visit Nov. 21 was made all the more special as Airmen delivered supplies and warm greetings from a class of young American students a half of a world away in California.
For the 22 first graders of St. John's Lutheran School in Oxnard, Calif., e-mailed pictures of the delivery brought a happy conclusion to a class project in giving that started in early October when each student bought a coloring book and supplies and put them in the mail and waited.
"There's the coloring book I sent ... that's my letter she's reading ... what a pretty classroom," squealed the children more than a month later as they looked in amazement at the pictures taken only 14 hours earlier as the children of Vinogradnoye happily received their gifts and letters.
Along with coloring books, markers, pencils and colors, each child also wrote a short letter - in Russian - to each of the Kyrgyz children.
"We heard, through my husband who is deployed there, that many of the local Kyrgyz schools needed supplies and learning tools," said Vanessa Pickart, the St. John's first-grade teacher. "Part of our curriculum is to conduct outreach activities that benefit people near and far. I wanted the students to know how the simple act of giving can have such a big impact on someone. I can't tell you how hard their little fingers and minds worked to write those letters in Russian."
"My name is Victoria. I live in California," said Natalya Sadykova, the Vasilievika School's first grade teacher, as she read one of the letters to her students and held it high for them to see.
The elementary school, located about 10 miles from Manas AB, was built in the 1970s when Kyrgyzstan was a republic of the Soviet Union. After its collapse in 1991, the school fell into disrepair and suffered at the hands of vandal and vagrants. In recent years, volunteers from the base and local community have rehabilitated half of the large brick structure, which now serves three 25-student classes.
"This school receives much of its support from the base," said Manzura Kushbaeva, the school principal who works closely with volunteers from Manas to identify projects and needs. "The base has painted the school, rebuilt the playground, reestablished running water and always brings supplies and treats for the students. It was very special that they delivered these supplies from school children in America."
The Kyrgyz children shouted "spasibo" or "thank you" in Russian and gave high-fives to the Airmen as they handed out the coloring books and supplies. Within the hour, as volunteers chopped firewood outside to heat the school and sanded and assembled a teeter-totter they brought with them, the first graders inside were already quietly coloring and occasionally opening their letters from America and grinning at one another.
"It was so nice of the American school children to do this for our class," said Sadykova. "We really appreciate them taking the time to think of us."
| Date Taken: | 11.28.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2008 21:38 |
| Story ID: | 26916 |
| Location: | VINOGRADNOYE, KG |
| Web Views: | 116 |
| Downloads: | 101 |
This work, California first graders make friends in Kyrgyzstan, by Maj. Rickardo Bodden, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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