Meeting would join children of troops deployed in Iraq

Evans Middle School parent Donna Graves asked school officials last week to consider organizing a meeting of children whose parents have been deployed in the war in Iraq.

"What I am suggesting is a one-time meeting where they can get together, see one another, recognize faces and realize there are others in the same place as they are," said Graves, whose husband has been deployed. "This is a significant step in laying the foundation of support that might be needed more in the future than it is now."

She said the meeting would allow the children to exchange telephone numbers and e-mail addresses with others who are in the same position.

She said she got the idea for the meeting when her 14-year-old son, an eighth-grader at Evans Middle School, said he did not know of any others at his school whose parents had been deployed.

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Evans Middle Principal Myrel Seigler said the school has plans to put up a wall of honor with the photos of those pupils' parents who have been called to duty; those pupils have been given yellow ribbons to wear. They also are planning to post red, white and blue and yellow ribbons around the school. Seigler said he would gladly play host to a meeting if one is organized by school officials.