Prior to the invention of Skype, social studies teacher Thomas Fox carefully packaged and sent phone cards to active duty US military members. In 2009, he and history teacher Jim Lowe founded the Patriotic Student Alliance to continue creating an appreciation for those who are serving and have served. The alliance provides services to veterans throughout the school year.
“We started off doing a little bit more for the active duty members, and we still do from time to time,” Fox said. “Our direction led us to the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home, where we do most of our [events], and that’s been the focus ever since.”
At the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home, the alliance has helped organize Oktoberfest and a Christmas event for veterans who don’t have family to spend time with during the holiday season. The alliance received a $200 grant from Michael Pennington at Coldwell Banker Town and Country Real Estate to buy items such as blankets, socks, sweatpants and clothes for veterans.
“Our job is to go out and buy gifts within the budget, and then bring them to Mr. Fox,” junior alliance president Noah McCaulley said. “We go wrap them after school one day, and then we go out to the Hollidaysburg Veterans’ Home to give the gifts to the people. It’s really nice to see the reactions to what they get. We had a guy, I think his name was George. He was a super nice guy that we gave gifts to. He’s a really big Philadelphia Eagles fan, and he enjoyed pretty much everything he got. He got hats and shirts. As soon as he saw the hat that he got, he put it on immediately. That was a lot of fun.”
“We had a couple of guys that were not very mobile, that were bedridden, and you see their smiles when the kids got them stuff they could use—blankets and things like that,” Fox said.
Twelve students from the alliance gave gifts to five veterans at the home.
“The veteran I had, his name was Tom, and he was a submarine vet,” junior alliance vice president Vida Blanco-Peterman said. “We got him a lot of submarine-like things. He liked word search books. He liked science a lot, so we bought him a couple science books. We got him a submarine hat. We got him a couple clothes.”
Blanco-Peterman’s experience with the veterans was “meaningful” while McCaulley summed it up as “empowering.”
“It kind of made me, personally, and other people in the club feel empowered to do more things like this, more often, because community service is always a good thing to do, no matter what it is,” McCaulley said. “It could be doing what we do, helping with veterans. It could be cleaning up trash in a park. It could be helping your neighbor paint a fence or something. Any community service is good community service.”
