Innocence sends hope abroad

Coral Wilson

With thousands of soldiers stationed overseas, Harbour View

Elementary School students are focused on rooting for one Marine in

particular, hoping that he comes home safely.

“You are more than a hero to me, you’re a star and so are your

friends,” wrote Catherine Moir, 8, in a letter to Lance Corp. Philip

Marcotti. “My heart belongs to the USA and you.”

Students in Mary Ann McGuckin’s second-grade class are cheering on

their adopted soldier by writing and sending letters to him.

Marcotti, 23, of Westminster is on the front lines, headed for

Baghdad. McGuckin received the latest news by phone from Marcotti’s

mother. The two families have been friends for years.

“Let him know people here are thinking about them, he will feel

really good,” McGuckin said before setting her students to the task

of writing Marcotti a letter.

First the class brainstormed suggestions.

“I hope you get back to your home,” Jesus Abundez, 8, suggested.

“Keep the good work up,” Isaac Shearer, 8, said.

“Be strong,” “How do you drive a tank?” “Maybe you could come

visit us,” were other thoughts offered of what they could write in a

letter.

The children pulled out their notebooks, sharpened pencils and

diligently set to work. They copied his name and the date off the

board. After that, they were stumped and looked around for help.

“Mrs. McGuckin, how do you spell hope?” Laura Hernandez, 8, asked

her teacher. “How do you spell you?”

Erasing the letter U from Laura’s paper, McGuckin corrected her,

“No, the word you, Y-O-U.”

Madison Martin, 8, sighed with frustration and then looked up the

word return in her Quikword paperback dictionary.

Draven Holland, 8, had lost interest in his own letter and busied

himself by taking a poll.

“How much did you write?” he asked his classmates.

Catherine had 15 lines so far, Madison had 18 and Seth Seidel had

already written 22 lines.

“That’s a lot,” Draven remarked.

As the students finished their letters, they brought their papers

to their teacher for corrections. McGuckin covered the papers with

red ink and handed them a second paper for the final draft.

Jesus sat next to her with his hands in his face, shaking his head

in hopeless desperation at his blank piece of paper.

“What else do you want to say?” McGuckin asked him.

“Don’t be worried, or your mom,” Jesus told his teacher who wrote

his message down for him.

“I hope you will be right back,” Jesus continued. “I hope you come

to our school.”

As the students finished their letters and headed off to play on

the computers, McGuckin suggested the students draw a picture at the

bottom.

“Mrs. McGuckin, how do you spell ‘Bless’?” Kimberly Nguyen, 7,

asked.

“Mrs. McGuckin, how do you spell ‘America’?” was her next

question.

“A-M-E-R-I-C-A,” McGuckin answered.

Kimberly finished off her letter with a crayon drawing of a flag.

And in large, green letters she wrote next to it, “God Bless

American.”

* CORAL WILSON is a news assistant.. She can be reached at (714)

965-7177 or by e-mail at coral.wilson@latimes.com.