Fort Hood soldiers and State Guard troops bring Christmas gifts to House Creek Elementary

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

Students at House Creek Elementary School received a special surprise with a visit from Fort Hood soldiers and members of the Texas State Guard Friday morning as a kick-off to their Christmas break. 
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, the Adopt-A-School Unit for House Creek Elementary, brought candy for every single student and purchased gifts for 10 families identified through the campus’ Communities In Schools representative. 
Six of the soldiers settled in the school’s Music Room to wrap the presents Friday morning so that Communities in Schools representatives were able to distribute the gifts later that morning
Lt. Col. Charles ‘Skip’ Turner, the Battalion Commander for the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, said that the soldiers were happy to be back at the school. 
“It’s big to give back to the community, but I think on the flip side of that is that the community supports us, so, this is just something small that we can do, but I think we get a joy out of doing this because we get to see the support behind the soldiers and the troopers,” Turner said. “We have some t troopers now with children actually in the school, so it’s always good to come out and be able to sit with families and children. They’re the future right, so we kind of want to keep going.”
5th graders Melanie Russell, Delilah Cazares, Maxwell Holland and Charlotte Galloway, with the House Creek Student 2 Student program, escorted the soldiers on a brief tour around the campus before they began wrapping presents. They said it was an honor to be able to show the soldiers around their school, especially during the last day before Christmas break. 
Russell said being able to give the tour made her feel important. Holland said that the soldiers were all very nice and listened to them on the tour. 
“I didn’t want to come to school today, but now that I know that I got to lead the Army [on the tour], I really felt really good,” said Holland. 
The students lined up as a class to receive a stuffed animal of their choosing from the State Guard- either a polar bear, dog, sloth, dinosaur, cat or owl. They then returned to their classrooms, where teachers had planned a Christmas party with treats and snacks and fun activities and crafts, such as the book exchange that 5th-grade teacher Kandis Elkins hosted. 
Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment then visited each classroom with a special surprise of candy for each student. 
“Over the last year and a half, year and 10 months, we’ve kind of went through COVID and we’re still going through it now, so opportunities like this don’t come too often with the environment we’re in with COVID, so it means a lot to me just to be able to come out every once in a while, and being around people and enjoy the holiday season is a tremendous honor,” Turner said. 
Capt. Chaplain Sean Payton, with the Texas State Guard, said that bringing a stuffed animal for each student is something the Guard has been doing since 2009. 
“The Texas State Guard’s main role is to make sure no child in the state of Texas goes without a toy,” Payton said. 
Since 2009, the State Guard has collected more than 500,000 toys, and they collected 71,000 toys this year. 
“The mission of the Texas State Guard is basically to help Texans in need, so typically that’s during natural disasters, things like that, but this is also a time of need and so this definitely fits into their mission really well,” said Sgt. 1st Class Melisa Washington, the Texas State Guard Public Affairs Officer. 
Also helping at the distribution of the stuffed animals were Richard and Joan Leary of Lighthouse Church of Copperas Cove. 
The church helped with collecting toys for the State Guard to distribute in Copperas Cove, according to Richard. 
For fifth-grader Christian Guerrero, it was an obvious choice on which stuffed animal to select. He chose the green dinosaur, which is his favorite color, and decided on naming it “Dino.” 
“I just like dinosaurs,” Guerrero said. “It felt like it was the coolest one through all the plushes, and I think dinosaurs are tough and cool and they can withstand anything.”
Guerrero said he also thought it was pretty cool that the soldiers and members of the State Guard came to visit.
1st grader Emma Mendez selected a sloth that she chose to name “Heart.” She said she was excited about her class party and getting to pick out her new stuffed animal.