Center School ensures soldiers have jolly holiday this year


Jamie Quinn’s fifth grade class at Center School in Longmeadow spearheaded a school-wide collection of more than 5,000 items for the troops. Reminder Publications submitted photo

Dec. 26, 2011

By Katelyn Gendron

Assistant Managing Editor

GREATER SPRINGFIELD — When Jamie Quinn’s fifth grade class at Center School in Longmeadow read the headline “Soldiers hope they’re not forgotten” in the Nov. 7 edition of The Reminder, they wanted to make sure the members of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Travis Bailey’s squadron received plenty of holiday cheer this season, and that’s just what they did — exponentially.

The 22-member class delivered more than 5,000 items and 350 hand-written cards from the students and families at Center School to Bailey’s mother, Karen O’Connor of Chicopee, on Dec. 19. Bailey, 26, a 2003 graduate of South Hadley High School, is currently serving in Afghanistan.

“The first day the article came out I had 14 calls and the second day, 12. I have every Marine [serving with Travis], all 32 adopted. Every day I have someone calling me, it’s incredible,” O’Connor said. “I had to get a desk, a bulletin board, tacks and paper clips just to keep things organized in my small apartment.”

She sends out monthly care packages via the non-profit Care For Our Troops. Shipping packages to Afghanistan total approximately $100, O’Connor noted.

She’s had limited contact with her son since his deployment but O’Connor did say that Bailey is overwhelmed by the support and generosity of not just those at Center School but throughout the region. Bailey recently told his mother, “We get the boxes and we’re so pumped!”

Quinn said her students regularly participate in philanthropic work but this project has taken their efforts to a whole new level.

“We’ve collected money for UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] and we’ve symbolically adopted five wildlife species but this particular group really took it upon themselves to make this their holiday mission,” Quinn said.

She noted that more than 1,000 hand warmers, 250 pairs of socks, 978 pens, along with numerous decks of cards, duct tape, hygiene products, flashlights, magazines and more were collected.

“We have at least 100 of every item,” Thomas O’Shea, a member of Quinn’s class, said.

“She [O’Connor] was so happy when she saw all the items and she almost started to cry ... she didn’t expect so many items,” he recalled.

Classmate James Letendre said he was confident the entire school would participate. “We’re doing something for people who aren’t even in the USA so I knew they’d like to help.”

When asked what charitable project they’ll take on next, O’Shea and Letendre agreed that they were definitely ready for a few weeks off before making a decision.

O’Connor’s work is also far from over. “Even when Travis comes home safely [next year] I will continue. This work needs to be done. The New Year is beginning and we’re still going strong,” she said.

Bailey will also keep up correspondence with those throughout the region and Care For Our Troops, signing over the duties to the incoming staff sergeant upon his departure, O’Connor explained.

For more information about sending care packages or letters to Bailey’s unit, call O’Connor at 532-8953.

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