Warren County kids make cards for veterans home
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PITTSFIELD -- Joyce Strickland's six grandchildren are getting their crafting brains on and creating their own Christmas cards for a veteran's nursing home in Erie.
"They really like crafts," Strickland said. "They wanted to make their own cards to give to somebody and my brother knows a nurse at the home so when I suggested this to them they said, 'ok, sure' and did it."
The nursing home, Pennsylvania Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, in Erie is the oldest of the six veterans' homes in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs website. Strickland said her grandkids -- Allyson Peate, Alivi a Peate, Braxton Maynard, Brantley Maynard, Ella Lord and Carter Lord -- had a great grandfather who was in the military and while they did not know him, it makes donating to a veterans' home more important to them.
This will be the second year the kids have made their own cards for the home. On Dec. 8 after school, they gathered in Strickland's garage to create their cards, using construction paper and other items Strickland had ready for them.
"I have construction paper and things I have cut out already for them," Strickland said. "They can draw trees or other Christmas things, and I will have glue and other items that they use to decorate their cards. They can kind of do their own thing."
Strickland said the kids did four to six a piece last year and that is the same goal for this year.
After the cards are made they bring them to Strickland's brother who delivers them to the nurse at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. Strickland said maybe in the future they would make plans to hand deliver the cards to the veterans themselves, but did not have plans for that this year.