FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Locals Start Supply Line

By Zac Anderson, staff writer Northwest Florida Daily News

March 18, 2004 -- Until recently, the 190 students in the tiny Iraqi village of Al Anwar made due with a handful of pencils and a few blank notebooks.  They walked to school barefoot; they scrimped and shared. 

Now every student has more supplies than were previously shared by an entire classroom because of the fund-raising efforts of local schools and the generosity of many Niceville and Valparaiso residents.

The schools have collected approximately $10,000 worth of supplies, enough to provide every student in Al Anwar with a gift bag full of all the essentials - crayons, pencils, notebooks - and a few friendly extras like toy cars and Barbie dolls.

"It's more than what they ever had," said Diana Reese, the Niceville resident who organized the supply drive.

The idea to collect and ship the supplies came to Reese after talking with an Air Force friend of hers from Tampa Bay whose unit was stationed in Al Anwar and had adopted the school.  Reese organized efforts to send care packages to the soldiers but decided to shift the focus to school supplies after hearing about the conditions in the school, which is located about 45 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The Iraqi students shared 10 pencils and two composition books for every 50 kids, Reese said.  Pictures of the joyful students receiving their packages show a bare, white-washed classroom packed full of students at worn-looking wooden desks. 

The American soldiers told Reese that the Iraqi children, upon delivery of the supplies two weeks ago, were timid at first but became gleeful once they realized the gifts were theirs to keep. 

"(The soldiers) said it was like Christmas morning," Reese said.  "They said there was all kinds of laughter and smiles."

Credit to those smiles goes to the families who donated supplies and the Reese household specifically, where sifting and packaging was a daily activity for more than two weeks in February. 

Reese's two daughters, her son and their friends did much of the work.

"It feels good to help them and do a good deed," said family friend and Niceville High School freshman Brad Steinke.

In a strange twist of fate, not only were local residents sending the supplies, but it was also a Niceville man who delivered them.  Craig King, a lieutenant colonel with the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, rotated to Al Anwar just as the supplies were arriving.  King lives in Niceville with his wife, Betty, 10-year-old son, Scott, and 15-year-old daughter, Lauren. 

Betty King said her husband was "surprised but very pleased" when he found out about the program and said it would help endear the soldiers to the local community.

In an email to Reese, king described the reaction of the children upon receiving the gifts.

"I wish somehow I could express the excitement, joy and surprise on the face of those Iraqi kids..," King wrote.  "They don't have a lot and what you're doing is huge for them."

The excitement in Al Anwar won't end anytime soon.  Upon hearing that all the children were barefoot, the Niceville students began a shoe drive that is still in progress.

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