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Kids find a pen pal in soldier

Third-graders at St. Patrick School in Smithtown form a bond with an Army sergeant in Iraq

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER | Newsday Staff Writer

April 10, 2006

The children know that the soldier is from California, likes to surf, has a dog named Rufus, and sometimes sleeps in a tank.

Army Sgt. Travis Collier, 22, stationed since November at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, now knows a lot, too, about 26 third-graders at Smithtown's St. Patrick School.

Right before Christmas, Bonnie Habyan met Collier's mom, Ryndi Collier, of Murrieta, Calif., at an event in Uniondale for the commercial mortgage company for which they both work. Habyan's daughter, Holly, 9, had been asking for a pen pal, and the mothers thought the soldier would be a good match.

In Holly's first letter, decorated with smiley face doodles, she told Collier of her floppy-eared Chihuahua named Max and her fluffy cat, Rosie, who get "seriously annoyed" with each other.

Soon, a letter arrived from a country Holly knew little about. "I didn't know he was going to write back," she said, clutching a Teddy bear wearing military fatigues that she plans to send to Collier. "He has so much to do and he actually took time to write a letter back."

When Holly shared her letter with her class, all the students wanted to write the solider as well. Slowly, handwritten letters addressed to each student in the class began to arrive, signed, "Your Army buddy, Sgt. Travis Collier."

"I felt so good to have a letter from all the way that far," said Natalia Schaefer, 8.

Reached in Iraq via e-mail, Collier wrote, "This wasn't something I intended to do in order to gain support for the troops or show my political colors. It was something I wanted to do for these kids."

In some letters to the children, he wrote about missing the beach and asked whether it was cold in New York. In others, he shared child-friendly glimpses of war's toll on a soldier. To Natalia he wrote, "I do worry about making mistakes, especially since I have four soldiers that I'm in charge of and it's my duty to take care of them so they can return home, too."

When Holly asked her mother whether people are allowed to kick each other in Iraq, Habyan realized how innocent the third-graders are in their understanding of war. The children do understand that simple things easily purchased in Smithtown are scarce during a war in a faraway country. And so today the children are putting together a giant care package for Collier, full of candy, drawings, magazines, phone cards and socks.

Matthew Roxburgh, 9, planned to send shaving cream, razors and a can of peanuts: "My grandpa was in a war and he told me people in war like peanuts."

Nick Attardi, 9, is sending boxes of Bazooka and Juicy Fruit gum and lip balm. Katie Curry, 9, will give him a giant book of Sudoku number puzzles because, "I thought he might be bored."

For Collier, writing back to them has been therapeutic. "It was a way to escape and enter a different zone," he e-mailed. "Not a combat zone, nor military zone, but just a free spirit and fun zone."

His mother, reached by telephone, said she didn't realize her son was writing such personalized letters to the kids. "He just doesn't think what he's doing is a big deal," she said. "He feels like he's the grateful one that someone is thinking of him and boosting his morale."