The Galveston County Daily News

GALVESTON — The 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines deployed to Afghanistan will have warm toes and hearts, thanks to the students at Galveston school district.

Mary Viegas, whose son is in Afghanistan, recruited students from her son’s alma maters — Parker Elementary and Weis Middle schools — to collect thick socks and write letters to other Marines in her son’s platoon.

The students, who are not much older than the war itself, have collected more than 60 pairs of thick tube socks and written scores of letters to show support for the troops, they said.

“It gives me a lump in my throat,” Viegas said.

Students in grades four and eight who wrote to the soldiers said they wanted to express their admiration for the troops’ bravery and service.

“Someone needs to show them they’re doing a good job,” Jeremy Mitchell, an eighth-grader at Weis Middle School, said. “Someone needs to show support for them. They are fighting for our country and supporting us.”

Tyler Rushing spent 40 minutes carefully wording his letter to a Marine in Afghanistan.

The eighth-grader, who has never known at when there was not a war in Afghanistan, said he wanted to find the right words to tell the troops what their service meant to him. Rushing said he hopes the Marine who gets his letter “feels good inside” when he reads the letter.

Viegas launched the letter-writing and sock-collecting project shortly before her son, 22-year-old Joey Viegas, deployed for the first time to Afghanistan last week. She said she hoped to draw awareness to the soldiers’ bare-bones existence in Afghanistan. Troops often lack and warm socks or scarves in Afghanistan where the winters are bitter cold, Viegas said. She carries a pair of the thin, military-issue socks in her purse to educate people about the soldiers’ need for thick, warm clothing.

“Not too many people get excited about warm socks, but these Marines will,” she said.

This is Viegas’ second project to collect goods for the troops: In early October, Viegas asked for help producing hand-knit helmet liners for the members of her son’s platoon. She has so far collected 175 liners. Priests and ministers will bless the liners Monday at Viegas’ house before she ships them off to Afghanistan.

Viegas said it’s been uplifting to see the number of people eager to support the troops.

“They’re so excited,” she said. “They’re like ‘I can actually do something to directly help and make a difference’ ... It’s so heartwarming.”