It isn’t only the magic that makes the holiday’s merry and bright. In the right hands, this time students in Chelsea Konwinski’s third-grade class at Lost Creek Elementary, it can come from a box of crayons.
“We want to make the holidays special for veterans,” Etta Nelson asked her classmates, “and send wishes to each of them and their families.”
The project, organized by the Nebraska Admirals Association, collects Nebraska-shaded ornaments that are decorated by school-aged children across the state. They are delivered to vets in the Nebraska Veterans’ Homes, those abroad on the USS Nebraska submarine and the USS Omaha LCS. Etta’s mother, Miranda Nelson, said the response to the ornaments is truly felt.
“I received a photo and a note from one of the “back-on-land” sailors with his wife, pointing out their Christmas tree ornament,” she said. “He had received it a decade before the photo was taken! It was so heartwarming to get their reactions to the ornaments.”
