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South Range to send cheer to grad serving overseas
Greenford
Holly Toy and Brian Patrick don’t know Jarrod Fusco personally, but they’ve spent the past two weeks gathering personal messages for him.
Toy and Patrick are eighth-graders at South Range Middle School and are participating in The Vindicator’s Operation Holiday Cheer.
Fusco, a South Range alumnus, is one of nearly two dozen service members featured in Operation Holiday Cheer. The Vindicator published the names and addresses of local military personnel who won’t be home for the holidays. Readers can send cards or gifts to them.
South Range English teacher Gwen Spitz saw the article and spoke with Fusco’s family members, who said what he really wanted for Christmas was to hear from people back home.
She told her students, Toy and Patrick, about the project. Since then, they have wheeled a camera around the South Range K-12 complex, interviewing individual students and filming classroom messages.
“People who don’t know him still wanted to thank him,” Toy said.
Patrick, who has photographed and filmed school plays before, said it was interesting to interview high school teachers who remembered Fusco well.
“We don’t know him, but now we do,” he said.
“It’s inspirational and cool to hear what people had to say. Many teachers said he was quiet and a good student,” Toy added.
Spitz said her interview was full of memories.
“I just shared with him that I remembered having him in class, exactly where he sat. ... I remember who he was good friends with and I told him we were all thinking about him and appreciated what he and the troops are doing and to come home safe and soon,” she said.
Spitz said she isn’t surprised Toy and Patrick took up the project, nor is she surprised by the overwhelming response from students, staff and teachers.
“We’re a family. It doesn’t matter when you graduated. We remember you; we love you; we care about you; we follow what you do,” she said.