MANCHESTER – There were plenty of smiles, snacks and stories shared by service personnel of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB-MDL) who visited a township school for a special program.
Superintendent Diane Pedroza noted that “the Manchester Township School District cherishes our partnership with JB-MDL) and their recent visit was an extra special.”
Students enjoyed the visit by the JB-MDL Hispanic Heritage Committee who chose to interact with students at Manchester Township Elementary School before National Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close.
The students always get excited when the soldiers come to visit. While they are all based out of JB-MDL they hail from different branches of the military and excel in different specializations, so the students love to learn about their lives.
The soldiers spent time in kindergarten and first grade classrooms answering questions about where they work, where they live, what they do for the military, what their favorite snacks are, what their favorite sports teams are, and other important questions.
CS2 Morrison is a chef with the U.S. Navy. He spoke to the students about the importance of his job providing nutritious meals to the Navy soldiers. Morrison shared that he also specializes as a pastry chef making him an extra important person on their culinary team when it comes time to celebrate a birthday.
Ayala, a soldier with the US Air Force, engaged students with stories of her travels around Europe and the Pacific. They loved hearing about the multiple languages she and her family speak and how her children were born overseas.
School officials said MTES military-connected students were thrilled to share their stories with the soldiers and classmates during the visits and that there were stories told by Manchester’s students who also live on JB-MDL.
There are students who have parents and family members currently serving. Some of them are deployed and the children spoke about how they look forward to them coming home.
Soldiers participated excitedly in the students’ snack time, assisted in classroom crafts and lessons, read to the students, and overall provided another very special visit to the Manchester Township School District.
“We look forward to welcoming them again throughout the school year for the Reading Buddies Partnership Program, soon,” Pedroza said.
