Published: May 01, 2008 12:30 pm            

Soldier visits ECMS

April 30, 2008 — It all began with a trip to the counselor’s office and ended with a personal visit from a soldier preparing to leave for overseas duty.

The day Carly Marshall’s uncle William Tilsley left for training with the 201st Engineer Battalion, she was very sad.

As she arrived late to school that day, her sixth grade teacher at East Carter Middle Melanie Scott noticed Carly was upset and told her to visit the counselor’s office.

During her visit to see counselor Donna Kouns, Carly was told maybe her class could write letters and send packages to her uncle during his training deployment.

Over the past two months while training at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin, Spec. Tilsley said he began receiving items from Scott’s 105 students. “It just made me feel really good that these kids would take time out of their studies to think of me and my fellow soldiers,” Tilsley said. “I shared all of the things with my fellow troops and they were as happy as I was.”

Among the packages were cards, letters, fishing magazines, decks of cards, pens, candy, beef jerky and a journal.

While home on a five day leave this past week, Tilsley wanted to show his gratitude by visiting ECMS to offer a personal thanks to all the students. “We leave April 30 for Afghanistan and this certainly made me realize how these kids feel about me”, he commented. “I hope they will continue to write to me while I’m gone, and I will for sure write back to them.”

Carly said she is happy her fellow classmates wanted to show their support to her uncle. “I will miss him real bad while he is gone,” she said. “He will be here for five days, and we are going to spend a lot of time together.”

Tilsley’s tour of duty will last until March 2009.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.