Holiday greetings are in the cards

La Salle High School seniors Lorena Russell,17, left, and Aubrie Widhalm, 17, right, make Christmas cards to send to troops in Iraq. The art classes at La Salle took worked on this project during October and November. Photo contributed Brother James Joost, La Salle High School principal.

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF

As families come together stateside for the holidays, the realities of war continue for the soldiers serving in Iraq.
So when art classes at La Salle High School began making Christmas cards to send to the troops, it wasn’t just another assignment.
The project started with Jamina Jones, La Salle’s 53-year-old art teacher. She came up with the idea following a discussion with a friend who had made 25 cards for troops stationed overseas.
“I thought that if a friend can produce 25 cards, the class can produce several hundred,” Jones says.
In early October, La Salle’s two afternoon art classes were given precut 4.5-by-6-inch and 6-by-9-inch cards, and asked to create a card that could be sent overseas.
Each class voted on the top six designs. And for the next month, the classes reproduced these designs, adding their own individual twists.
“It was interesting to see all the kinds of different personalities the cards had,” says Ryan Kilseimer, a 17-year-old La Salle senior.
Each student was required to make a minimum of nine cards, but many students made as many as 15. The cards themselves were left blank on the inside so soldiers could write messages and send them back home.
La Salle art students produced just over 600 cards. And they weren’t alone. A group from Yakima’s Church on the Move and Jones’ middle school art students from St. Paul Cathedral School also worked on the project. In all, these different groups produced nearly 1,000 cards.
But Christmas cards are not the only heartwarming items being sent overseas. Fifty packs of gum and bags of hard candy are also being mailed, just in time for Christmas.
“It was fun to make cards for troops, and I hope it makes their holiday,” says Samantha Summers, a 17-year-old La Salle senior.
According to Jones, the project was not just about making cards. It was an opportunity to think of the challenges facing the men and women who are serving the country: separation from loved ones, the possibility of death or injury, and not knowing what the next day might bring.
“I wanted (students) to know that there’s a world outside of their own … that needs prayer,” Jones says.
The project also incorporated service-learning, in which students are given the chance to learn while being of service to others in the world around them.
“It’s great when an activity comes from compassion and serves a need, and is also a lesson in the subject being studied,” says 47-year-old Brother James Joost, who serves as both the principal and a teacher at La Salle.
The project connected with students, particularly 18-year-old senior Katie Roy, who knows people currently serving in Iraq. She says making Christmas cards is practical.
“With how expensive they are, it’s helpful to actually have someone make them,” Roy says.
Christmas isn’t the end of the art project. Jones says her classes will take one day each month to make general cards to send to the troops.
So far, she says, she’s received two e-mails in response. The first was a message of gratitude and blessing.
The second, Jones said, summed it all up in just one word: “WOW.”

• Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.