SANTA ANA : Pupils Fax Concern to Troops in the Gulf

Writing letters to troops in the Gulf War is nothing new for pupils at Jackson Elementary School, but sending the messages by fax machine is.

On Friday, 10 pupils, accompanied by Principal Gloria Roelen, showed up at the AT&T; office at the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall with more than 300 handwritten letters from classmates.

The youngsters watched with amazement as AT&T; employee Denise Lopez fed letters into the machine and said, “These letters will be arriving overseas in 20 seconds.”

“This is great,” said Alvaro Alverez, a fourth-grader who was selected by Lopez to aid her in faxing the one-page letters. “I think everyone should have one.”

The field trip was organized to send messages to the troops and to give the pupils a lesson in modern technology. Before Friday, most of the pupils in the group had never heard of a facsimile machine and none had seen one.

“This was one of those things that they really had to see to understand,” said teacher Samie Colunga, who accompanied the group. “I think it was a very educational experience because it helped connect the kids to what’s going on overseas.”

Pupils have been sending letters, some of them in Spanish, to the troops since September. Roelen said she is amazed at how well-informed the pupils are about the war.

“They really do have concerns,” Roelen said. “They see it on the news every day and are worried about the soldiers. We had them start writing letters so they could do their part to support the troops. They are so thrilled whenever they get a response.”

First-grader Joe Ayala had just finished seeing his letter faxed and said that the troops “will be really happy about our letters, and I hope they write back.”