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thedrifter
01-31-07, 09:41 AM
01/31/07

Hero gets reward from LNS students

Susan Drennan decided to send a few personal items to her nephew, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas Garlock. Her son Michael's fifth-grade class at Laurel Nokomis School had bigger plans.

His class and two others collected 210 pounds of supplies for Garlock's platoon.

Garlock,19, who had only been Iraq for three months, had already saved the lives of two Marines even before being deployed overseas.

Prior to his deployment, Garlock volunteered for a week-long class in combat-style first aid at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He used the training to save the lives of two soldiers suffering from burns received during combat.

The course is intended to enable the soldiers to help instead of becoming bystanders in an emergency.

"I just wanted to send a care package to him to show him how much we care," Drennan said.

So did three fifth-grade classes at Laurel Nokomis School when they heard what Garlock had done for the soldiers.

"All I had to say to my son Michael's teacher was, we needed some personal items to send to Iraq and everything started pouring in," Drennan said.

Help pours in

Teacher Janis Hanson asked the children to write letters to the soldiers to include in the package.

The three fifth-grade classes collected 70 pounds of items each.

"Soldiers like to have personal toiletries, cans of ravioli and macaroni, Pop Tarts, pudding, hard candy, gum and Zip-lock bags -- things they can't find in Iraq," Drennan said.

When she took the items to the UPS store on East Venice Avenue and found out how expensive it would be to ship them, "the store donated the shipping boxes and packed everything for free," she said.

Drennan also received donations from customers in the UPS store who watched as the packages were being shipped.

"After hearing the story, everyone helped and we had enough supplies to give to 40-50 troops," she said.

The package arrived last week in Iraq and Garlock was able to leave a phone message with thanks for Drennan and the students.

"He liked everything except the personal items for women," she said. "He reminded me that it was an infantry division."

scairo@venicegondolier.com

By Susan Cairo

Staff Writer

Ellie