U.S. Navy sailors serving on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier will be receiving greeting cards with encouraging messages and hand-made crafts for Christmas from ACS students who created the cards and crafts this month.
The project to send Christmas greetings to the sailors was initiated by ACS parent and Board of Directors’ member Kris Jacoby and her son, Joshua (JJ) Jacoby, an ACS senior. The Jacoby family has been long-time friends with the Spagnoli family in Galloway, and their son, Sam, is a Navy sailor stationed on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (pictured below). Earlier this year, that carrier had an outbreak of COVID-19 onboard and the carrier’s 5,500 sailors had to be quarantined.
“These sailors have had a pretty rough year and we learned from Sam’s family that they are being deployed again and will be away from their families for Thanksgiving and Christmas,” said Mrs. Jacoby. “We felt that it would really bring a smile to the faces of these sailors if they received some Christmas cards and encouraging messages.”
Mrs. Jacoby said she was pleased that the ACS administration embraced the project, which got underway in early November. Students in the 6th to 12th grades were given the opportunity during their Bible classes to write personal messages in Christmas greeting cards for the soldiers. Elementary students in the after-school Servant’s Heart Club during their November 3 meeting also got involved, painting crafts and decorating hand-written Christmas letters with Bible verses for the sailors.
In the end, the ACS students completed over 200 cards and letters for the sailors that they will receive next month. JJ Jacoby said some of the messages he and his fellow students wrote in the cards included — “Thank you for your service”; “Hope you have a merry Christmas”; and “We’re praying for you.”
“I think the sailors will really appreciate these cards,” JJ said. “They will be deploying very soon and will be on the carrier for six months straight, so getting a card for the holidays is really going to mean a lot to them. I’m just glad we had the opportunity to do something special for them.”
