MTI STUDENTS SEND CALLING CARDS TO TROOPS

( Bradenton , FL — December 20, 2007 ) C osmetology students from the Manatee Technical Institute Chapter of SkillsUSA sent personalized cards containing phone cards for the holidays to soldiers doing duty in Iraq . It was an “American Spirit” project.

Students Brenda Gonzales, Jackie Mendoza and John Lott collected $360 from faculty and students on campus, with which they purchased Christmas cards and seventy-one 75-minute calling cards. Gonzales led the effort and engaged her classmates to write personalized messages in each of the 71 cards.

Gonzales said of her efforts, “I wanted to do something patriotic for the troops. Everyone (in my class) wanted to participate—appreciating the troops for putting their lives out there for us.”

Some of the students have family members fighting in Iraq . Jennifer Sheffield's older brother is serving in the Army in Baghdad . “All I could think about was maybe him getting one of the cards and being able to call my mom—how happy it would make her. I miss him very much.” The last time Sheffield got to speak with her brother by phone was April 2007.

Gonzales got the idea for the project during a conversation she had with some veterans from the American Legion who participated in a Memorial Day service on campus last May. “We get so caught up in our daily lives that we don't think of them.” She finished with, “It completes a part of myself to reach out.”

The cards were sent to the chief master sergeant of the daughter of one of the cosmetology teachers, Brenda Ayers. CMSgt Don Foster, United States Air Force, has an attachment of 170 USAF personnel who are performing Army duties. They are stationed in Qatar and go back and forth to Iraq doing convoy duty. They are acting as vehicle operators for the 424 th Medium Truck Detachment.

The mission of Manatee Technical Institute is to meet and exceed our community's training and educational expectations. MTI is a 2007 Tampa Bay Business of the Year and has won more SkillsUSA medals than any other school in the nation for the past four years.

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