Valentines for veterans

Feb. 06--DANVILLE -- Hundreds of valentine cards hand made by Danville students are bound to bring a smile to veterans' faces next week.

Students in all grade levels from 11 schools in District 118 started creating and decorating the heartfelt tokens last month.

"I get valentines from all over the district," said Jim Rogers, a fourth-grade teacher at Edison Elementary School. "Pretty much everyone at Edison makes them."

For their creative contribution, the kindergartners in Liz Strader's class at Edison made 21 valentines that looked like anthropic heart-shaped characters with googly eyes and accordion-like arms and legs.

Rogers collected all of the valentine cards Friday and planned to have a few large boxes filled with the children's valentines picked up and taken to the Danville Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System so the cards can be distributed to veterans all next week.

"They will hand them out to the in-patients and if any are left over, they will hand them out to the outpatients who are at the VA for doctor appointments."

Rogers took on this project many years ago when his sister, Teresa Ard, was chief of voluntary services at the Danville VA. She has since retired, but Rogers has continued the project.

"I started coordinating the valentines for vets," he said. "The district has been participating for 11 years now."

Rogers, who served in the military, recalled how appreciative he felt when he received a holiday card while he was a patient at a VA hospital right before Christmas many years ago.

The card-making project isn't all about cutting out heart shapes and sprinkling glitter and sequins on the cards. Rogers says he uses it as a learning opportunity to talk to the children about what a veteran is.

"We talk about veterans and my own service," he said.

Many of Rogers' 21 fourth-graders created more than one valentine card that included handwritten wishes such as "Thank You for Your Service" and "Happy Valentine's Day."

Hearts, of course, were a common theme on the students' creations, but one child had a little bit of trouble drawing a heart shape.

"Mr. Rogers, are you good at making hearts?" a girl asked.

Some students, such as Tanyjai Driver and Cole Huff, skipped the heart motif altogether.

Tanyjai made her valentine card look like a purple butterfly.

Cole created a paper airplane valentine, complete with hand drawn camouflage, which he thought a male veteran would prefer.

"Usually things pop in my head, plus I enjoy paper airplanes," the fourth-grader said of the inspiration behind his creation.

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