Navy Pen Pal Project

Niskayuna middle school students (grades 6, 7, and 8) have been writing to deployed Navy ships for 19 years. Students send greetings to pen pal ships stationed in the Persian Gulf, Mediterranean, and other foreign waters during long deployments.

The students send letters, colored banners that rhyme with the names of the ships, school pictures, homemade cookies, newspaper clippings of news and sports from back in the states, and more. They tell the sailors about their school and life in Niskayuna. They talk about sports, school clubs, projects, families, pets, hobbies, and academic subjects. They tell funny stories about their pets, but most of all, they tell the sailors how much they appreciate the jobs they are doing for our country.  Each student writes a personal, individual message of thanks in their letters. Their letters are not cookie-cutter types; they are all individually written from the heart. They offer to be good pen pals and ask the sailors to write back.

Little did we know how the Navy would respond to our letters. Many friendships have been formed as a result of this project. Sailors have driven to the school when ships have returned home. Crews and captains have made more formal visits to the school,  and we have a huge assembly and welcome program for them. The students have been invited to visit different ships when the ships and crew have come to ports such as Staten Island, NY, Earl, NJ, and Boston, MA.  We've had a Navy Sea Knight helicopter and 25 officers and crew from different ships land in our soccer fields for a formal visit. We've had the captain and 12 crew members of a nuclear submarine visit our school. Check out our pages for the story of our project and its results. Who says grown ups and busy military people don't have time for kids? We learned that they sure do have time for us!

Mrs. Carol LaRow, teacher

Links To Subpages On This Site:

• Pictures of students doing the project

• More pictures of students, banners they made, and hand=drawn envelopes for the letters they sent

• Navy Sea Knight helicopter and crew visit the school, Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 8

• Submarine crew visits the school, SSN - 753

• List of ships we've written

• News articles about our project

• Close-ups of envelopes we drew for mailing our letters

• Close-ups of students' letters

• Pictures of students visiting pen pal ships

• Autographed pictures from Navy captains

• Thank you letters from Navy captains

• More thank you letters from Navy captains, executive officers, and individual sailors and marines

• Items the Navy sent the students - plaques, ball caps, ships' patches, flags/ensigns, and more

• Movies of the project

• Live chat with the captain of the U.S.S. Normandy and 7th graders

• Live chat with the captain of the U.S.S. Normandy and 6th graders

• Background information about the project

• Contact us - leave us a message, and if you were one of the sailors/marines who received our letters, please contact us

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Students write to Navy ships at sea

Navy Pen Pal Project

Navy thanks students for their letters

Navy flies Sea Knight helicopter to school to thank students for their Navy Pen Pal project

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