High school is the age of transitions. Learning how to conquer the clock while spending time with friends, working on academics, and of course making time to get involved with the social hot spots of sporting events, activities, and clubs, yet throughout the course of a busy week it is easy for one to take what he has for granted, regardless of how busy he is. So when C.C. Aspedon joined Reach/SADD her freshman year, she wasted no time exercising the group’s ability to give by throwing a new activity into the mix, Adopt a Soldier.

Along with her mother, Aspedon introduced the idea of hosting Adopt a Soldier to the Reach/SADD organization. The two explained their idea thoroughly and claimed it would not only be a way for Reach/SADD to become more involved in the community, but the school as a whole.

Working together, the Reach/SADD advisory members and the Aspedons collected names and addresses of close family members of students whose loved ones were deployed over seas, as an effort to send them a reminder of the support Glenwood Community High School expressed. Once the list was narrowed down, the group conversed with the related students to learn about their deployed loved ones, and figured out a way to send them a bit of respect. The group came to the conclusion to send each soldier a “care package.” In each package contained reminders of home, favorite goodies, games, and movies, and of course a letter from their loved ones and the group which adopted the soldier.

The idea was a hit not only for the school, giving organizations, or the receiving soldiers, but everyone as a whole. Since the success of the first “Adopt a Soldier” procedure, Glenwood High’s Reach/SADD and the Aspedons agreed to take this activity on as an annual tradition. They will send out the second round of care packages to deserving soldiers accordingly, each in time for the arrival of Valentine’s Day.