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IRAQ-SCHOOLCHILDREN Jun-28-2004 (830 words) With photo. xxxn
Parishes team with actor, author to help Iraqi students
By Paula Doyle
Catholic News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- When the next school year begins for Iraqi children, many of them will be carrying new school supplies, thanks to an international program initiated by an Oscar-nominated Hollywood actor and students from Our Lady of Malibu School.
Gary Sinise, perhaps best known for playing "Lt. Dan" in the film "Forrest Gump," co-founded Operation Iraqi Children after two USO trips to Iraq.
On one USO trip, Sinise said, he was deeply moved while touring squalid, one-room school buildings that lacked books, pencils, paper, blackboards and libraries -- elements that American schools take for granted.
During a tour of a school that had recently been refurbished by coalition forces, Sinise said he was impressed with the collaboration between American soldiers and Iraqis. "I saw a camaraderie and affectionate outpouring of gratitude toward the Americans," he said.
Many of the soldiers worked in small groups to distribute supplies sent to them by family members, school groups and churches back in the United States.
When Sinise returned to Los Angeles, he contacted Matthew Weber, principal of Our Lady of Malibu School, to see about holding a drive for school supplies at the school to assist the rebuilding of 1,500 schools in Iraq.
"We want a grass-roots effort of kids putting supplies together," said Sinise.
Ryan Houge, a sixth-grader at the school, told The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, that it "was good helping less fortunate people in poverty." A classmate added, "We were doing our part in the community."
Last fall, the students collected 25 boxes of school kits. Each "kit" is a plastic bag that contains basic items such as pencils, notebook paper, scissors, rulers and colored pencils -- crayons melt in the Iraqi heat.
Sinise paid for the initial shipment, but now has formed a partnership with Federal Express, which ships the boxes from a Midwest location to the military in Iraq. The materials are distributed by coalition forces.
In an e-mail to Sinise, an Iraqi who was on hand for distribution of the first batch of school kits declared that the schoolchildren's parents "will not forget this day and the kids will remember the soldiers who help Iraqi children."
Since that first shipment less than a year ago, Sinise has joined forces with Laura Hillenbrand, author of "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," to formally establish Operation Iraqi Children. It is a worldwide effort aimed at improving learning conditions in Iraqi schools.
Sinise and Hillenbrand also have teamed up with other nonprofit service organizations to help in collecting and shipping the supplies. They are working with groups such as People to People, directed by Mary Eisenhower, granddaughter of President Eisenhower, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Across the country in Highland, Ind., children at Catholic parishes are also participating in Operation Iraqi Children.
Arlene Olson said her daughter told her of the project after hearing about it on the radio. Olson said when she first heard the idea "it struck home."
"You see war on television and the fighting in Iraq," and now there is something she and others can do on their own to help, she said.
Olson told the Northwest Indiana Catholic, newspaper of the Gary Diocese, that she took the idea to a meeting at her parish, Our Lady of Grace, and since then two parish groups have become involved with Operation Iraqi Children.
Charmaine Plautz coordinates Our Lady of Grace's efforts with Olson.
"We thought it was a worthwhile project," Plautz added. "We have to be charitable -- that's what we're taught -- and charitable especially toward children. Any child deserves an education."
A group of crafters in the parish and the Altar and Rosary Sodality have prepared nearly 30 school kits.
Following the detailed instructions provided by Sinise's group online, at www.operationiraqichildren.org, they wrap and box individual school supply kits -- each intended for use by one student.
Groups of six kits -- each containing the same school supplies as well as a stuffed animal or toy -- are placed in a larger box that is then shipped to the Federal Express warehouse.
More than 1,000 boxes have been received from church and service groups from 37 different states.
"It's a way for people to come together and do something positive," said Sinise. "We've gotten so many letters from schools that this project teaches the importance of service to others."
He added, "If we can pull together and make Iraq a success, our troops can come home."
From statements on the Operation Iraqi Children Web site, Sinise and Hillenbrand said they have been "inundated" with correspondence from people wanting to help -- from retirees to schoolchildren to church youth groups.
Sinise said, "It is a beautiful way to begin a relationship with the future leaders of Iraq. They have been forgotten for so long. Now there is a chance for them."
- - -
Contributing to this story was Steve Euvino in Gary.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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