NMS Students Send Letters To Soldier In Afghanistan

By Eliza Hallabeck

While reading War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Newtown Middle School students in Cathy Cincogrono’s reading classes wrote letters, collected goods, and sent a box out on Friday, February 3, to Andrew Buonocore, who is serving with the Marines in Afghanistan and is the brother of an eighth grade student.

“I’m really happy that we are doing something for him,” said Cooper Buonocore, Andrew’s younger brother.

While Cooper said he and his brother do not write normally, Andrew calls home when he can. The last time the brothers saw each other, Cooper said, was in October, and the box of goods will be a surprise when it arrives in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, February 2, students were still working in each of Ms Cincogrono’s six reading classes to finalize cards for Andrew, but the box Ms Cincogrono got from the post office was nearly brimming with candy, socks, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.

War Horse, Ms Cincogrono said, is told from the perspective of a horse in World War I, and, while reading the story, students were asked to think about the perspective the author chose for the book.

After Cooper shared the information about his brother, the classes started collecting goods to send to Andrew. Each class, Ms Cincogrono said, donated to the box. The students then started writing individual cards to place in the box.

“In order to read better,” Ms Cincogrono said, “you have to make connections.”

The students wrote to Andrew about their experience reading War Horse, and many thanked him for his service to his country.

Eighth grader Emma Horne said she wrote about how War Horse connects to Andrew’s experience, and, “just how much we support him and how much we appreciate them fighting for us.”

While there are enough goods packed in the box for Andrew to share, Ms Cincogrono said everything is for him.

Shawn Sanders, another eighth grade student, said sending something to a soldier when War Horse takes place would have taken much longer than it does now. Other than that, Shawn said not much has changed in the way of experiencing war.

Ms Cincogrono shared she is impressed with how the prepared boxes from the post office now come ready to be sent to service men and women, with words printed on them that read, “America Supports You.”

“I thought it was really nice to do this,” said eighth grader Cole Siksay, “because people out there don’t always think about the soldiers out there who are protecting the United States.”