Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991 TAG: 9102020317
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A5 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NATURAL BRIDGE LENGTH: Medium
Roughly 2,500 children picked up their crayons, pens, and scissors to create Valentine's cards for U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf this week.
It was not an easy task for some. "It was hard to think of something to say, because you're trying to comfort them," said Cameron Hartwill, a sixth-grader at Natural Bridge Middle School.
Van Drummond, a Vietnam War veteran who is marketing director for Natural Bridge Village, came up with the idea for "Operation Valentine's Day Card" weeks before the war began.
Back in Vietnam, where he served in Air Force intelligence, Drummond remembers that lonely stretch between Christmas and Easter when mail from home was scarce. He thought Valentine's Day would be perfect timing to bombard troops with homemade cards from children.
"There's no doubt in my mind it will do wonders for them," Drummond said. "This is an entire community of children who've come together . . . to say what they feel.
"These are messages from the heart."
Like the one from Carly Kretzer, a first-grader from Central Elementary: "Dear Soldiers, I hope you're not hurt from Saddam Hussein. I love you very much. I hope you come back safely. I love you. I am thinking about you everyday. I really love you. Love, Carly."
Some of the valentines are plain, others are bedecked with ribbons, sequins, miniature hearts and tiny snapshots of the children who created them.
These snapshots will be a hot commodity, Drummond predicted. The troops will be fighting over them, wanting to keep them in their helmets or tape them to their tent walls.
Effinger Elementary's fourth-graders glued their photos to a giant valentine and wrote: "Roses are red, violets are blue, we don't like war, but we like you!"
Some valentines showed a grimmer version of the heart with an arrow stuck through. "Give Saddam what's coming to him," wrote Damien Keith of Glasgow.
Mathew Strickler of Lexington's message was plain enough: "Dear Soldier, all I can say is get in there and get Saddam out! P.S. Give Saddam a bomb for Valentine's Day."
Every elementary and middle school in Rockbridge County, Buena Vista and Lexington took part in "Operation Valentine's Day Card," but only a few dozen children came to a Friday morning ceremony at Natural Bridge Hotel.
There, U.S. Rep. Jim Olin, D- Roanoke, explained to a group of children the reasons for the war.
"We're not there to destroy Iraq but to convince Hussein to get out," said Olin, who voted against the resolution to allow the president to use military force. "Sometimes it's necessary for countries who value freedom and decency . . . to take steps such as this."
The 2,796 valentines will remain on display at Natural Bridge Hotel through Sunday. They will be shipped overseas Monday, to be divided between the branches of military serving in the gulf.
by CNB