SEBASTIAN — Changing the world can seem like a daunting task for anyone, especially a teenager with a disability, but improving a little corner of the world for soldiers in Afghanistan makes students at Sebastian River High School temporarily feel like heroes themselves.
For the second year, students in the school’s Yes I Can club are collecting needed personal care and food items to pack and ship to troops in the battlefield. The club pairs students with disabilities with non-disabled students for social activities to build understanding, belonging and self-esteem.
Last year, they collected enough supplies to send 25 care packages to the troops.
“An activity such as the care package drive strengthens bonds not just between our students, but reaches much deeper than that,” said exceptional education teacher Brenda Truesdale, who teaches autistic students at Sebastian River High School.
“This enables students of all abilities to give back to their community in a meaningful way and this experience of giving will carry on with them in their hearts long after they have graduated from high school,” she said.
Club members were inspired to start the care package drive after their former classmate, Michael Tozzolo of Sebastian was sent to Afghanistan.
Knowing that a young man from their own school would open one of the care packages full of basic necessities that he wouldn’t have otherwise made the project tremendously meaningful to the students.
“The care package shows that the troops matter to us,” said sophomore Damon Burkel, 16, of Sebastian.
Tozzolo belonged to the Yes I Can Club before graduating from Sebastian River High in 2004. He went on to earn a degree from the University of Florida in 2008 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.
According to Truesdale, he is now a Captain and is currently stationed in Monterey, Calif. where he is working on his Master’s degree.
Anyone wishing to donate items can drop them off at the front office of the school during school hours between now and Dec. 21 when students will be packing the boxes. The club is also seeking cash donations to assist with the shipping of the packages overseas. Checks and letters or cards to the troops can be sent to Sebastian River High School Yes I Can Club, c/o Brenda Truesdale, 9001 Shark Blvd., Sebastian, FL 32958.
Senior Misty Clineman of Sebastian said the items in the care packages are important because they help afford them more personal dignity and comfort when deployed in harsh terrain away from the conveniences that the folks back home take for granted.
“I think it’s important because the troops are very important to our country. They help keep us safe and they deserve to be clean and have food to eat and know that we care about them and that we appreciate what they do for us.”
Clayton Cooper, a sophomore, said he thinks the care packages send the message that, though the soldiers and marines are thousands of miles away, that they’re still in the hearts and minds of people back at home.
“Sending care packages shows the troops that we care and have not forgotten about them. We appreciate them fighting for our country,” Cooper said.
Other students echoed Cooper’s sentiment, and as senior Terrence Webster put it, the care packages “show that we appreciate what the soldiers have done for us over the years to protect our country from attacks.”
Brittany Stock, a 17-year-old junior from Sebastian said the show of support – the “care” in the care package – from the homefront is as important as the actual items being sent in the boxes.
“It shows that we care, and that the troops are important to us. Also it shows that they have people out there that support them,” she said.