Pictured is Mrs. Catherine Cavanaugh with students and care packages at Lincoln Elementary School. Photo provided.

WARSAW — Since November 2019, Lincoln Elementary School has shipped out eight care packages to two soldiers overseas, with two extra boxes for them to share during Christmas.

According to a press release from Warsaw Community Schools, these soldiers are deployed until the end of February and receiving those care packages brings them joy each month because they know they are not forgotten. Recently, Catherine Cavanaugh, a first-grade teacher at Lincoln, received word of two units that were being deployed to the Middle East. Since Lincoln’s two adopted soldiers will be coming home at the end of February, Lincoln’s teachers welcomed the opportunity to support these two units. With generous donations from teachers, students, and the community, Lincoln Elementary will be able to serve around 20 more soldiers from this unit.

Cavanaugh looks forward to receiving letters and pictures back from the school’s adopted troops to share with students, staff and community. Deployed soldiers and building care packages both have a special place in Cavanaugh’s heart. She is marred to Brandon Cavanaugh, a middle school alternative program teacher at Gateway Education Center, who served in the military from 2011 to 2019. During his service, he has traveled to Germany, Afghanistan, Texas, New Jersey and many other areas.

Cavanaugh began building care packages during his deployment to Afghanistan; he was gone for 10 months. She made sure to add all of her husband’s favorites and other goodies to share with his platoon. For Brandon and his unit, knowing that there was support from home and the community made what they were doing more manageable.

Since starting at Lincoln Elementary School, Catherine Cavanaugh knew that this was something she wanted to achieve with her community and students. The outcome and generosity of the Lincoln community were overwhelming. The staff and students came together to collect items such as snacks, drink mixes and puzzles to send to soldiers overseas.

Cavanaugh will be sending out her final shipment of 12 boxes this week.

Anyone wanting to get involved can contact Lincoln Elementary School.