JChristin
08-16-03, 12:48 PM
Oregon Marine moms helping Iraqi students
09:57 AM PDT on Saturday, August 16, 2003
Associated Press
One Oregon Marine's mom is doing her part to rebuild Iraq.
Deb Conrad of Lebanon, whose 19-year-old son in a lance corporal serving in Iraq, is behind an effort to collect school materials for 650 children and their teachers in Najaf, Iraq. The effort involves about 40 other mothers of Marines who live in and around Salem.
Conrad said the group's work is part of a larger Backpacks for Iraq campaign coordinated by an Army sergeant in Najaf, a holy city of more than a half-million people that is 100 miles south of Baghdad.
When the city fell to U.S.-led forces in April, looters stripped most schools of their supplies, so many students will head back to class in the fall without paper, pens or textbooks.
The aim of Backpacks for Iraq is to ensure at least some of those students will start the year prepared to continue their education. Conrad said her group is one of several around the United States working toward that goal.
Conrad's group has raised $1,300 to buy the school supplies. All that remains is to collect $4,000 to purchase the backpacks.
She hopes to wrap up the campaign by Sept. 15 -- about the time her son, Shane Conrad, is scheduled to come home.
A military transport plane will fly the backpacks to Najaf, where coalition forces will distribute them.
"I'm so proud of what the Marines are doing," she said. "This is one way that we can help them as they help the people of Iraq."
Conrad said her son decided to join the Marines immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a senior at South Albany High School.
By April, he was in the desert of Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment as part of the U.S. effort to drive Saddam Hussein from power.
09:57 AM PDT on Saturday, August 16, 2003
Associated Press
One Oregon Marine's mom is doing her part to rebuild Iraq.
Deb Conrad of Lebanon, whose 19-year-old son in a lance corporal serving in Iraq, is behind an effort to collect school materials for 650 children and their teachers in Najaf, Iraq. The effort involves about 40 other mothers of Marines who live in and around Salem.
Conrad said the group's work is part of a larger Backpacks for Iraq campaign coordinated by an Army sergeant in Najaf, a holy city of more than a half-million people that is 100 miles south of Baghdad.
When the city fell to U.S.-led forces in April, looters stripped most schools of their supplies, so many students will head back to class in the fall without paper, pens or textbooks.
The aim of Backpacks for Iraq is to ensure at least some of those students will start the year prepared to continue their education. Conrad said her group is one of several around the United States working toward that goal.
Conrad's group has raised $1,300 to buy the school supplies. All that remains is to collect $4,000 to purchase the backpacks.
She hopes to wrap up the campaign by Sept. 15 -- about the time her son, Shane Conrad, is scheduled to come home.
A military transport plane will fly the backpacks to Najaf, where coalition forces will distribute them.
"I'm so proud of what the Marines are doing," she said. "This is one way that we can help them as they help the people of Iraq."
Conrad said her son decided to join the Marines immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a senior at South Albany High School.
By April, he was in the desert of Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment as part of the U.S. effort to drive Saddam Hussein from power.