November

VETERAN: a person who has served in the armed forces

HONOR: respect and admiration

GRATITUDE: a feeling of being thankful to someone for doing something

(Don't forget, if you use any of these words correctly in a sentence you can earn a free bookmark!)

The 5 branches of our military are the Navy, Marines, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force.

Click here and here to learn more about Veteran's Day. Scroll down to learn more about what we did to thank our veterans. At the bottom of the page you will find the letter we received from the Department of Veterans Affairs that thanked us for our contribution.

In honor of Veterans Day (November 11th), throughout November, Camp Read Smore will be decorating a large "Heroes Tree" that will later become our "Giving Tree." Here's how you can help! Halloween is almost here and that means candy, candy and more candy; probably too much candy. Please bring in your extra wrapped candy (no foil wrapped chocolate please) to school by Tuesday, November 5th and Mrs. Spector will turn it into a local dentist who donates it to Operation Gratitude, an organization that sends candy and care packages to our troops overseas.

If that wasn't cool enough, it gets even better! We will receive a $1 per pound of candy that we "sell" to the dentist office. With that money, we will buy items that our local veterans need to decorate our "Heroes Tree" along with letters of thanks to our veterans for serving and protecting our freedoms. Our "Heroes Tree" will transform into a "Giving Tree" when we take all of the letters and items collected and deliver them to our local veterans' groups at the end of November. Spread the word! Bring in your extra candy! The class that brings in the most candy will get to watch a special movie in the library!

Our school brought in a total of 504 pounds of candy for our troops! That's $504 that we can use to bless our local veterans! Way to go Dolphins! As far as we're concerned, we are all winners. You gave to a great cause and should be very proud of what you have accomplished! Special thanks to Adventure Dental and Dr. Amy Monti, in Santa Clarita, for allowing us to participate in your Annual Halloween Candy Buy Back program. Together, we accomplished two great deeds in one!

Congratulations to the top 3 classes!
Winning Class: Mrs. Barrett's with 56 lbs.
2nd Place: Mrs. Coronado's with 47 lbs.
3rd Place: Mrs. Greenan's class with 34 lbs.

Each year the American Red Cross provides assistance to more than 2 million service members and many of our nation’s 24 million veterans. They support military families, military and veterans hospitals and provide emergency communications across the globe. Once a year, they get the joy of delivering holiday greetings to veterans, military families and active-duty service members at hospitals and installations around the world.

Last week, many of our students at NACP wrote letters and colored holiday cards for these service members. The student's cards and personal messages will be sent along with tens of thousands of other Americans to provide a welcome “touch of home” for our troops during the holiday season. Click here to watch a video from the Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

As you can see in the picture below, "Our Heroes Tree," also known as "Our Giving Tree" is packed full of gratitude from the students at NEW Academy Canoga Park. The tree is full of holiday mail and letters of thanks to our men and women of service. The letters will be taken off of the tree and delivered to our local Ladies Auxiliary Post 2805 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars who will ensure that they get into the hands of our local veterans. The holiday cards will be mailed to the Red Cross in care of their Holiday Mail for Heroes program which you can read more about and watch a special video in the paragraph above. Please scroll down below the tree to see some of the heartwarming pictures and letters that the students wrote.

On November 9th, we welcomed a very special veteran to NEW Academy, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2805 Commander Marty Yingling. Master Chief Marty Yingling has served our country for 30 years and spoke to our students during our assembly that day. On behalf of our students he, along with Mary Kreutz (Ladies Auxiliary President of Post 2805), brought all of the items we were able to purchase with our $504, back to the Canoga Park VFW. From there, the items will be distributed to needy veterans as well as placed in gift bags for the veterans living at the Sepulveda VA Hospital on the ladies auxiliary visit in December.

Below is a letter we received from the Department of Veterans Affairs thanking us for our contribution.