Students make tape for troops’ kids

Christine Carrillo

Silence fell over the multipurpose room at Harbor View Elementary

School several times on Friday as one audience after another watched

the 15-minute video of student-to-student support for the first time.

The content was simple. It was nearly 100 Harbor View students, of

different backgrounds and different ages, sending their love to other

students struggling with the absence of their military parents during

the war in Iraq.

“It’s great and it’s a tear-jerker,” said Mellissia Christensen,

principal at Harbor View. “They’re so sincere. They can’t be

empathetic because they don’t know what it’s like, but they’re about

as sympathetic as they can be. It’s so wonderful to see.”

Trying to do what they can to reach out to those people intimately

affected by the war in Iraq, Harbor View, like other schools within

the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, decided that writing

letters to students at Mary Fay Pendleton Elementary School at Camp

Pendleton would be an excellent start. But just sending letters

didn’t seem like enough.

They decided to send a video, too, and not just to Camp Pendleton,

but to other bases across the country. The school hopes to send the

video, along with letters and items they’ve collected, sometime next

week.

“The video was just a way to capture their emotion,” said Jim

Ishi, a parent of three students at Harbor View and the editor of the

video. “It was always about the students.”

The goal of the project was for the students to reach out and make

a difference.

“It shows that our children are concerned about them and it shows

the support and solidarity among youngsters,” said Serene Stokes, a

trustee with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. “I think it’s

very positive for the youngsters because they need to connect with

other youngsters.”

“It was just really wonderful and I felt really connected to

them,” said 11-year-old Anna Palchikoff, one of the sixth-graders who

read her letter on the video. “It was really our way to support these

kids that are just like us.”

Students said they were glad for the experience.

“I was very proud of what I wrote,” said 9-year-old Max Priestley,

a fourth-grader who also read his letter on the video. “I just really

tried to put myself in his shoes, like I was reading the letter, and

talk about things he might like.”