BY JAY BODAS
Staff Writer
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROSEANN MISRAHI Students from Edgar Middle School became recent pen pals with soldiers in Iraq after responding to a call for correspondence from Sub Place Better owner George Post. METUCHEN — George Post had just about given up when a group of fifth-graders from Edgar Middle School saved the day.
Several weeks ago Post, 48, owner of Sub Place Better on Main Street, put up a sign in front of his store asking for customers to write letters to the troops in Iraq.
“I have noticed a lot of yellow ribbons on cars, but I thought that supporting our troops means doing more than just that,” Post said. “I know some people are collecting money for supplies, but I didn’t know exactly what supplies the troops needed. Then I realized that there are many troops that do not have anyone to write to them, and I put up a sign asking people to submit letters they would like to have sent to the troops.”
But Post received few letters over the next few weeks and was ready to give up on his idea.
“I only got two letters as a result of the sign, and so finally I decided to take it down,” he said.
Then one day Roseann Misrahi, who teaches computer classes at Edgar Middle School, walked in.
“I noticed the sign that had been up for weeks was now down,” she said. “George told me he had only received two letters, and I realized that I was coincidentally teaching a section on letter-writing in my classes.”
It was perfect timing.
“I gave the students in my two classes the assignment, and they had all finished their letters within half an hour, which is really remarkable since they were writing to someone they did not know,” Misrahi said.
The students in Misrahi’s classes hoped that this would encourage other people to do the same.
“They go out there and do this important service, and we showed them that we care,” said Jack Harpster . “It was nice to do the letters as a class, but if other people take notice of what we are doing, maybe it will start a chain reaction that would cause other people to care, too.”
“Usually people do not have time to write letters, and some people do not really care; they just watch the news,” said Fallon Melillo. “This was special to me because I could let them know that I care.”
Misrahi accompanied her two classes in two separate visits to Sub Place Better on May 19 to hand-deliver the letters.
“With the second visit, there was a gentleman in the side room who was listening to what was going on, and he told the lady behind the counter that he would pick up the tab for all the children to have sodas,” she said. “He would not give his name.”
Post plans to send the letters soon. He will give them to his son, Daniel, who is a United States Marine.
“My son has been in the Marines for the last seven years,” Post said. “He was in Iraq until recently, and many of his friends are still there. He is in North Carolina now and will probably go back in the winter.
“Some letters will go to troops in his old unit, and some letters will go to those in his new unit,” Post said. “The whole point of this is to keep the morale of the troops up.”
Post has owned the sub shop for 15 years.
“I told the kids that they had done something even harder than many grown-ups could do,” he said.
But it was the students in Misrahi’s fifth grade who best summed up their reasons for taking part.
“I thought they deserved something special,” said Joe Pahlow. “When they get on the battlefield, they are risking their lives, so if they get even one letter, maybe they will try harder to make the world a better place every day. And it is also good to help them in any way because this way they won’t feel so lonely.”