[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16152]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            CHRISTMAS CARDS AND HOLIDAY CARDS FOR OUR TROOPS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, on Christmas Day, most of us will wake 
up with our families, the smell of turkey in the oven, and homemade 
apple pie, but on the other side of the world, there are men and women 
who will wake up in the middle of the desert who are representing and 
protecting America's liberty. Those are our great American warriors.
  In 2005, I went to see our troops in Iraq during the Christmas 
season. Before I left, I asked my staff to get local schoolkids to make 
some handmade Christmas cards that I could give the troops, and I took 
about 5,000 Christmas cards to our troops in Iraq and in Kosovo. Every 
year since then, Mr. Speaker, kids in southeast Texas have been making 
Christmas cards and holiday cards for our troops in Afghanistan and 
Iraq and in other parts of the world.
  I want you to know that schoolchildren in southeast Texas made 69,000 
handmade Christmas cards for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and in 
other parts of the world that will be taken to them this Christmas. I 
want to thank all of those numerous schools, teachers, and chambers of 
commerce in southeast Texas.
  God bless every one of you for helping our men and women overseas 
have a better connection with our families and our young people in this 
country and for letting them know that Texans are thinking of them.
  And that's just the way it is.

       Hargrave High School JROTC; Humble ISD; Timbers Elementary; 
     Douglass Learning Academy; KARW; Norma's Bookkeeping and Tax 
     Service; Haude Elementary; Salyers Elementary; Crockett 
     Elementary; Girl Scout Troop 21157; Tarkington Primary 
     School; Cadette Girl Scout Troop; Goose Creek CISD; Brownie 
     Girl Scout Troop 16253; Spring, 4-H, Girl Scout Troop 26184; 
     Girl Scout Troop 26015; Marauder Composite Squadron; Holy 
     Trinity Episcopal School; Hi Neighbors Group; Ronald Reagan 
     Republican Women; Village Learning & Achievement Center; 
     McAdams Associates Real Estate.
       Schochler Elementary; Rikki Wheeler and the Baytown Chamber 
     of Commerce; Operation Independence; Ross Sterling High 
     School; Horace Mann Middle School; Alamo Elementary; San 
     Jacinto Methodist Hospital; Kingwood Middle School; Woodland 
     Hills Elementary; Sterling Middle School; Timberwood Middle 
     School; Beaumont Independent School District; Lamar 
     University; Boy Scouts; Deerbrook Baptist Church; Port Neches 
     Elementary; Chambers County Pilot Club; Neverland Rec. 
     Center; Westbrook High School; Marshall Middle School; St. 
     Thomas Episcopal Church, Beaumont, TX.

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