Marion students adopt a sock for those in Iraq

Jayne Lamberson is only in second grade, but she knew just what she wanted to tell a soldier in Iraq.

"I love you so much," she wrote in the letter that she read to the rest of her Marion School class Wednesday. "Thank you for saving our nation. Thank you for saving our lives. God bless you. XOXOXO Jayne."

When Lamberson had finished reading, second-grade teacher Marlene Linstead - through unexpected tears that told much this meant to her - held out a large, plush, crimson and white Christmas stocking as each of her 14 students dropped in their gifts to this as-yet unnamed soldier.

There were playing cards and a book, ornaments and candy, Kleenex and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Mariah Byrd, whose sister is a cook in the Army, added a bracelet, a hair tie and her Anastasia doll.

They popped in a cassette tape recording, on which the class sang "Jingle Bells" and each child personally delivered his or her message to the soldier.

Linstead topped it all off with a small plastic Christmas tree and set it on the classroom table for inclusion later with a shipment going from the Kalispell National Guard Armory to members of the 639th Quartermaster Company.

Attached to the outside of the stocking is a plastic baggie stuffed full of Christmas cards made by each child in Marion's second grade.

"I hope you have a great Christmas," the cards read. "I hope you come home soon."

"I love you even if you're not my dad," Kristen Ross wrote.

Colton Smith got specific: "From Colton to American Soldier: I hope you have a good time today. I hope you can come home. Merry Christmas."

Another is from Amber Lucas.

"Thank you for freeing us," she wrote. "I hope you like this card. Come back soon. Can you write back to me please? I love you. Thank you for our freedom. Sincerely, Amber."

One card from the whole class wished the soldier "Merry Christmas from the Marion 2nd Grade." Inside it is a photo of the entire class and the signature of each child.

Later, she talked of the 639th Quartermaster Family Assistance Center's initiative to set up this "Adopt a Sock for a Soldier" drive, assuring that every soldier there will be remembered at Christmas.

Linstead recruited every Marion teacher to have their students join in the effort.

"For as young as they are, I think they really understand this," Linstead said of her second-graders. "And for my daughter being over there, I think it gives them another connection with the families."

Trina Linstead, who turned 21 while serving in Iraq this past year, turned out to be the catalyst for Marion School's connection with the soldiers last year.

"When the Twin Towers happened," Marlene Linstead remembered, "another teacher and I hugged and said, aren't we glad our boys are too old for a draft? I never dreamt of my daughter going."

Then, on Nov. 8 last year, the phone rang. It was for her daughter, a member of the 639th Quartermaster Company.

"I'll never forget that call," Linstead said.

Trina Linstead deployed with the 639th on Dec. 9. It's been 11 months now and, on Wednesday, Linstead could barely wait for the incoming flight Thursday afternoon that would have Trina on it.

"That's my baby," Marlene Linstead said. "Out of four kids, that's my baby. I can't wait to get my hands on her tomorrow. But I'm going to hate seeing her leave again."

After the soldier gets settled in at home over the weekend, she will visit next week with the Marion School third-graders, Linstead's former students. They wrote to her four times last year, and have some catching up to do with this soldier who is a Marion alumna herself.

Tina Linstead also brought back a list of her fellow soldiers who don't get mail from home. The children will hone in on them when they write letters in the future. It should make a huge difference amidst the huge spiders, voracious fleas and 137 degree summer days, Marlene Linstead said.

"Trina says they are able to exist over there because of mail days," she said.

The second-graders also are looking forward to meeting and starting a correspondence with their teacher's daughter.

The 109 Marion students now have another Iraqi connection, as well.

Amy Krause started with the K-8 school on Wednesday as its new counselor. She would have started at the beginning of the week but her husband, Ed, a staff sergeant with the 639th, was leaving to return to duty in Iraq after a 15-day leave.

Marlene Linstead includes a little education throughout the school year on the American flag, the pledge and what it all means. She uses a second-grade book on the United States to teach children about their country, and draws on Newsweek magazine information to study the country and even the Presidential election.

When they plunged into Adopt a Sock, then, it was more than just bringing trinkets for an anonymous project.

"They are so tender-hearted," Linstead said of the hugs and Kleenex the children gave her on Tuesday when they first attempted to record their Christmas tape for their soldier.

"They put their heart into this sock," she said. "And they can't wait to start writing to Trina."

She is just one of eight or nine Marion school alumni fighting in the Iraqi conflict now, Linstead said.

And each one of them can make devotion to their country real for her young students.

She told them as much on Wednesday after the stocking was finished and they gathered around her on the floor.

"What is so neat," she told them, "is you guys know what it means for the soldiers to be over there and what they're doing. That's what touches me."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com