PS 175Q ThinkQuest Presents:

Military Memories

ARMY

www.americasupportsyou.mil

www.homesforourtroops.org

www.amillionthanks.org

http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome

The TQ Team with Valentine's Day Cards for Shauna's Pledge

Book Sale in Ms. Diamond's Room

The ThinkQuest team of P.S.175Q stumbled upon an idea to help our military. Some team members of ThinkQuest were watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and they had mentioned Homes for Our Troops. When we looked it up on the computer we found out that it is a part of America Supports You. America Supports You is a nationwide program by the Department of Defense. This program allows people like you and I to help the men and women from the military.  

On the Extreme Makeover Home Edition show, people who are in need of a home renovation get their old homes knocked down and remade to make their lives easier. On one special show the Extreme Makeover design team got to visit Master Sergeant Luis Rodriguez. Master  Sergeant Rodriguez was someone who got their home made over. He got his home made over because he lost one of his legs during the war in Iraq and it was hard for him to walk around his old house. Extreme Makeover then gave him the opportunity to help someone in need.  

Rodriguez told the team about a man he met while fighting in Iraq. Unlike Luis, he didn’t just lose one leg he lost two. Once Luis told the team the story they decided to visit Bobby Isaacs and redo his home. On the show a company called Homes For Our Troops was mentioned. When the house was finished it looked phenomenal and we were inspired to learn more.

We went on the America Supports You website to find out more about the program and while we were searching, we found a link to a campaign that supports US troops called Shauna’s Pledge.

Shauna’s Pledge Campaign is about a sixteen year old girl named Shauna Fleming who started a campaign by asking people around the world to make Valentines Day cards for the troops. The goal for Shauna’s Pledge Campaign this year was to send out 2.6 million cards for 2006. Visit www.amillionthanks.org to learn more about it.

We thought this was a great idea and wanted to help. So, we asked the students of P.S.175 to make Valentines Day cards to support Shauna’s Pledge Campaign. We got all the supplies we needed for the cards and explained to everyone why this was important.  The cards were written for all the troops in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coastguard here in the states and around the world.

The 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade students of P.S.175 made about 200 cards for the troops! As we collected the cards we packaged them in groups of 100, and we sent them out to a California school which is a “home base” for the Shauna Pledge Campaign. These cards were for the men and women in the military.  

“Dear Hero” was the introduction to every card sent to the men and women who protect us, and if you see the rest of our site, it is not hard to see why.

The ThinkQuest group wanted to donate money to the America Supports You organization. Our school always gets involved in activities that help other people (visit last year’s website www.tqnyc.org/NYC052223 ) so we decided to have a book sale on February 13^th. The whole school contributed used books that they had laying around the house. Every class had a chance to purchase books. Each book cost $1.00. When the used book sale was finally finished, we collected all the money made and donated half to the Joseph P. Seluga Garden, and half to Homes for Our Troops.  

2006/2007 ThinkQuest Competition-- The Lynn Gross Discovery School- 64-35 102nd Street Rego Park, New York 11374