north hills beanie babies for soldiers

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 3:03 AM  |  Printer friendly version | E-mail to a friend |

Students in kindergarten and grades 1-3 at North Hills Christian School are sending love around the world.

They're calling it their Project Beanie Baby.

The classes have been collecting beanie babies for our troops in Iraq to share with local Iraqi children.

The project began when kindergarten teacher Amy Steiner's son, Kirk, sent the class pictures of Iraqi children he met where he is stationed south of Baghdad.

The North Hills kindergartners were touched by the happy faces of the children, half way around the world, smiling at the U.S. soldier as he shared small boxes of cereal with them.

So the kindergartners invited their schoolmates to join them in collecting cuddlies to share with kids so far away, according to Lari Powell Hatley, director of advancement and admissions at North Hills.

They thought, "Cereal is good. Beanie Babies will be even better!"

The classes have collected hundreds of Beanie Babies, which they will soon be packaging to mail to Kirk Steiner's Army unit in Iraq.

For more information about the North Hills' students' project, call Hatley at 704-636-3005 ext. 108 or e-mail her at LHatley@northhillschristian.com.